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A  BOOK  ABOUT  LAWYERS. 


JOHN    CORDY    JEAFFBESON, 
w 

BABBISTEB-AT-LAW 


AUTHOB  OF 

"A   BOOK    ABOUT   DOCTORS, 

ETC.,    ETC 


3fttprtntt6  from  tfct  Ionium  3E&ition. 


TWO  VOLUMES  IS  ONE. 


NEW    YOEK  : 

p.  W.  Carleton  &  Co.,  Publishers 


LONDON  :    HURST   &   BLACKETT. 
MDCCCLXvU. 


6& 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1867,  by 

G.  W.   CARLETON  &  CO., 

In   the   Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the 
Southern  District  of  New  York. 


CONTENTS. 


PART  L  HOUSES  AND  HOUSEHOLDERS. 


CHAPTEB  PAGK 

L    Ladies  in 'Law  Colleges 7 

H.     The  Last  op  the  Ladies 13 

LTL     Yobk  House  and  Powis  House 22 

IV.    Lincoln's  Inn  Fields 27 

V.     The  Old  Law  Quabteb 36 

PART  EL  LOVES  OF  THE  LAWYERS. 

VL  A  Lotteby 49 

V1L  Good  Queen  Bess 55 

VJJLL  Rejected  Addbesses 62 

IX.  "  Cicebo  "  upon  His  Tbial 71 

X.  Bbothebs  in  Tbouble 75 

YT.  Eably  Mabbiages 86 

^      PART  HL  MONEY. 

XTT,    Fees  to  Counsel !     97 

XIEL    Retatnebs,  Genbbal  and  Special. 113 

XTV.    Judicial  Cobbuption 122 

XV.     Guts  and  Sales 136 

XVL    A  Rod  Pickled  by  William  Cole 143 

XVH.     Chief  Justice  Popham 149 

XVJLLL     Judicial  Salabies 153 

PART  IV.  COSTUME  AND  TOILET. 

XIX.    Bbight  and  Sad. 163 

XX.    Millineby 169 


VI 


Contents. 


CHAPTEB  ,  .  PAGE 

XXI.  Wigs 171 

XXIL  Bands  and  Collars 182_ 

YTTTT.  Bags  and  Gowns , 187~ 

XXIV.  Hats 195 

PART  V.  MUSIC. 

XXV.     The  Piano  in  Chambers 206 

XXVL     The  Battle  of  the  Oegans 208 

XXVTL     The  Thickness  in  the  Theoat 219 

PART  VL  AMATEUR  THEATRICALS. 

XXVUL     Actoks  at  the  Bab 224 

XXIX.     "  The  Plat's  the  Thing  " 230 

XXX.  The  Riveb  and  the  Stband  by  Tobchlight.  ...  238 

XXXL     Anti-Pbynne 243 

XXXLL     An  Empty  Grate 251 

PART  VH.  LEGAL  EDUCATION 

XXXHL     Inns  of  Cotjbt  and  Inns  of  Chancery 258 

XXXIV.     Lawyers  and  Gentlemen 265 

XXXV.     Law-French  and  Law-Latin 277 

XXXVI.     Student  Life  in  Old  Time 287 

XXXVLL     Readebs  and  Mootmen 298 

XXXVTLI.     Pupels  in  Chambers 307 

PART  VHL  MIRTH. 

XXXIX  Wit  of  Lawyers 316 

XL.  Humorous  Stobees 334 

XLI.  Wits  in  '  Selk  '  and  Punsters  in  '  Ermine  ' 349 

XLLL  Witnesses 365 

XLHL  CiRcurrEEBS 376 

XLJV.  Lawyebs  and  Saints 390 

PART  IX  AT  HOME  :    IN  COURT :    AND  IN  SOCIETY. 

XLV.     Lawyers  at  thi-.h:  Own  Tables 402 

XLVL     Wine 413 

XLVJLL     Law  and  Lttebatube 423 


PAET  IV. 

HOUSES  ABD  HOUSEHOLDERS. 


CHAPTEK  L 

LADIES   IN   LAW    COLLEGES. 

A  LAW-STUDENT  of  the  present  day  finds  it  difficult 
to  realize  the  brightness  and  domestic  decency 
which  characterized  the  Inns  of  Court  in  the  sixteenth, 
seventeenth,  and  eighteenth  centuries.  Under  existing 
circumstances,  women  of  character  and  social  position 
avoid  the  gardens  and  terraces  of  Gray's  Inn  and  the 
Temple. 

Attended  by  men,  or  protected  by  circumstances  that 
guard  them  from  impertinence  and  scandal,  gentlewomen 
can  without  discomfort  pass  and  repass  the  walls  of  our 
legal  colleges  ;  but  in  most  cases  a  lady  enters  them 
under  conditions  that  announce  even  to  casual  passers 
the  object  of  her  visit.  In  her  carriage,  during  the 
later  hours  of  the  day,  a  barrister's  wife  may  drive 
down  the  Middle  Temple  Lane,  or  through  the  gate  of 
Lincoln's  Inn,  and  wait  in  King's  Bench  Walk  or  .New 
Square,  until  her  husband,  putting  aside  clients  and 
papers,  joins  her  for  the  homeward  drive.  But  even 
thus  placed,  sitting  in  her  carriage  and  guarded  by 
servants,  she  usually  prefers  to  fence  off  inquisitive  eyes 
by  a  bonnet-veil,  or  the  blinds  of  her  carriage-windows. 
On  Sunday,  the  wives  and  daughters  of  gentle  families 


8  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

brighten  the  dingy  passages  of  the  Temple,  and  the 
sombre  courts  of  Lincoln's  Inn:  for  the  musical  services 
of  the  grand  church  and  little  chapel,  are  amongst  the 
religious  entertainments  of  the  town.  To  those  choral 
celebrations  ladies  go,  just  as  they  are  accustomed  to 
enter  any  metropolitan  church ;  and  after  service  they  can 
take  a  turn  in  the  gardens  of  either  Society,  without 
drawing  upon  themselves  unpleasant  attention. '  So  also, 
unattended  by  men,  ladies  are  permitted  to  inspect  the 
floral  exhibitions  with  which  Mr.  Broome,  the  Temple 
gardener,  annually  entertains  London  sightseers. 

But,  save  on  these  and  a  few  similar  occasions  and 
conditions,  gentlewomen  avoid  an  Inn  of  Court  as  they 
would  a  barrack-yard,  unless  they  have  secured  the 
special  attendance  of  at  least  one  member  of  the  society. 
The  escort  of  a  barrister  or  student,  alters  the  case. 
What  barrister,  young  or  old,  cannot  recall  mirthful  eyes 
that,  with  quick  shyness,  have  turned  away  from  his 
momentary  notice,  as  in  answer  to  the  rustling  of  silk,  or 
stirred  by  sympathetic  consciousness  of  women's  noiseless 
presence,  he  has  raised  his  face  from  a  volume  of  reports, 
and  seen  two  or  three  timorous  girls  peering  through  the 
golden  haze  of  a  London  morning,  into  the  library  of  his 
Inn  ?  What  man,  thus  drawn  away  for  thirty  seconds 
from  prosaic  toil,  has  not  in  that  half  minute  remembered 
the  faces  of  happy  rural  homes, — has  not  recalled  old 
days  when  his  young  pulses  beat  cordial  welcome  to 
similar  intruders  upon  the  stillness  of  the  Bodleian,  or 
the  tranquil  seclusion  of  Trinity  library  ?  What  occupant 
of  dreary  chambers  in  the  Temple,  reading  this  page, 
cannot  look  back  to  a  bright  day,  when  young,  beautiful, 
and  pure  as-  sanctity,  Lilian,  or  Kate,  or  Olive,  entered 
his  room  radiant  with  smiles,  delicate  in  attire,  and 
musical  with  gleesome  gossip  about  country  neighbors, 
and  the  life  of  a  joyous  home  ? 


Houses  and  Householders.  9 

Seldom  does  a  Templar  of  the  present  generation  re- 
ceive so  fair  and  innocent  a  visitor.  To  him  the  presence 
of  a  gentlewoman  in  his  court,  is  an  occasion  for  ingeni- 
ous conjecture;  encountered  on  his  staircase  she  is  a 
cause  of  lively  astonishment.  His  guests  are  men,  more 
or  less  addicted  to  tobacco;  his  business  callers  are  soli- 
citors and  their  clerks;  in  his  vestibule  the  masculine 
emissaries  of  tradesmen  may  sometimes  be  found — head- 
waiters  from  neighboring  taverns,  pot-boye  from  the 
'  Cock '  and  the  '  Rainbow.'  A  printer's  devil  may 
from  time  to  time  knock  at  his  door.  But  of  women — 
such  women  as  he  would  care  to  mention  to  his  mother 
and  sisters — he  sees  literally  nothing  in  his  dusty,  ill- 
ordered,  but  not  comfortless  rooms.  He  has  a  laundress, 
one  of  a  class  on  whom  contemporary  satire  has  been 
rather  too  severe. 

Feminine  life  of  another  sort  lurks  in  the  hidden  places 
of  the  law  colleges,  shunning  the  gaze  of  strangers  by 
daylight;  and  even  when  it  creeps  about  under  cover  of 
night,  trembling  with  a  sense  of  its  own  incurable  shame. 
But  of  this  sad  life,  the  bare  thought  of  which  sends  a 
shivering  through  the  frame  of  every  man  whom  God  has 
blessed  with  a  peaceful  home  and  wholesome  associations, 
nothing  shall  be  said  in  this  page. 

In  past  time  the  life  of  law-colleges  was  very  different 
in  this  respect.  When  they  ceased  to  be  ecclesiastics, 
and  fixed  themselves  in  the  hospices  which  soon  after  the 
reception  of  the  gowned  tenants,  were  styled  Inns  of 
Courts;  our  lawyers  took  unto  themselves  wives,  who 
were  both  fair  and  discreet.  And  having  so  made  women 
flesh  of  their  flesh  and  bone  of  their  bone,  they  brought 
them  to  homes  within  the  immediate  vicinity  of  their 
collegiate  walls,  and  sometimes  within  the  walls  them- 
selves. Those  who  would  appreciate  the  life  of  the  Inns 
in  past  centuiies,  and  indeed  in  times  within  the  memory 
1* 


10  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

of  living  men,  should  bear  this  in  mind.  "When  he  was 
not  on  circuit,  many  a  counsellor  learned  in  the  law, 
found  the  pleasures  not  less  than  the  business  of  his  ex- 
istence within  the  bounds  of  his  'honorable  society.' 
In  the  fullest  sense  of  the  words,  he  took  his  ease  in  his 
Inn;  besides  being  his  workshop,  where  clients  flocked 
to  him  for  advice,  it  was  his  club,  his  place  of  pastime, 
and  the  shrine  of  his  domestic  affections.  In  this  gene- 
ration a  successful  Chancery  barrister,  or  Equity  drafts- 
man, looks  upon  Lincoln's  Inn  merely  as  a  place  of 
business,  where  at  a  prodigious  rent  he  holds  a  set  of 
rooms  in  which  he  labors  over  cases,  and  satisfies  the 
demands  of  clients  and  pupils.  A  century  or  two  cen- 
turies since  the  case  was  often  widely  different.  The 
rising  barrister  brought  his  bride  in  triumph  to  his 
'chambers,'  and  in  them  she  received  the  friends  who 
hurried  to  congratulate  her  on  her  new  honors.  In  those 
rooms  she  dispensed  graceful  hospitality,  and  watched 
her  husband's  toils.  The  elder  of  her  children  first  saw 
the  light  in  those  narrow  quarters;  and  frequently  the 
lawyer,  over  his  papers,  was  disturbed  by  the  uproar  of 
his  heir  in  an  adjoining  room. 

Young  wives,  the  mistresses  of  roomy  houses  in  the 
western  quarters  of  town,  shudder  as  they  imagine  the 
discomforts  which  these  young  wives  of  other  days  must 
have  endured.  "  What !  live  in  chambers  ?"  they  exclaim 
with  astonishment  and  horror,  recalling  the  smallness  and 
cheerless  aspect  of  their  husbands'  business  chambers. 
But  past  usages  must  not  be  hastily  condemned, — allow- 
ance must  be  made  for  the  fact  that  our  ancestors  set  no 
very  high  price  on  the  luxuries  of  elbow-room  and  breath- 
ing-room. Families  in  opulent  circumstances  were  wont 
to  dwell  happily,  and  receive  whole  regiments  of  jovial 
visitors  in  little  houses  nigh  the  Strand  and  Fleet  Street, 
Ludgate  Kin  and  Cheapside; — houses  hidden  in  narrow 


Houses  and  Householders.  11 

passages  and  sombre  courts — houses,  compared  with  which 
the  lowliest  residences  in  a  "  genteel  suburb"  of  our  own 
time  would  appear  capacious  mansions.  Moreover,  it 
must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  married  barrister,  living 
a  century  since  with  his  wife  in  chambers — either  within 
or  hard-by  an  Inn  or  Court — was,  at  a  comparatively 
low  rent,  the  occupant  of  far  more  ample  quarters  than 
those  for  which  a  working  barrister  now-a-days  pays  a 
preposterous  sum.  Such  a  man  was  tenant  of  a  '  set  of 
rooms'  (several  rooms,  although  called  'a  chamber') 
which,  under  the  present  system,  accommodates  a  small 
colony  of  industrious  'juniors'  with  one  office  and  a 
clerk's  room  attached.  Married  ladies,  who  have  lived  in 
Paris  or  Vienna,  in  the  '  old  town'  of  Edinburgh,  or  Vic- 
toria Street,  Westminster,  need  no  assurance  that  life 
'on  a  flat'  is  not  an  altogether  deplorable  state  of  exist- 
ence. The  young  couple  in  chambers  had  six  rooms  at 
their  disposal, — a  chamber  for  business,  a  parl'or,  not 
unfrequently  a  drawing-room,  and  a  trim,  compact  little 
kitchen.  Sometimes  they  had  two  'sets  of  rooms,'  one 
above  another;  in  which  case  the  young  wife  could  have 
her  bridesmaids  to  stay  with  her,  or  could  offer  a  bed  to 
a  friend  from  the  country.  Occasionally  during  the  last 
fifty  years  of  the  last  century,  they  were  so  fortunate  as 
to  get  possession  of  a  small  detached  house,  originally 
built  by  a  nervous  bencher,  who  disliked  the  sound  of 
footsteps  on  the  stairs  outside  his  door.  Time  was  when 
the  Inns  comprised  numerous  detached  houses,  some  of 
them  snug  dwellings,  and  others  imposing  mansions, 
wherein  great  dignitaries  lived  with  proper  ostentation. 
Most  of  them  have  been  pulled  down,  and  their  sites 
covered  with  collegiate  'buildings;'  but  a  few  of  them 
still  remain,  the  grand  piles  having  long  since  been  par- 
titioned off  into  chambers,  and  the  little  houses  striking 
the  eye  as  quaint,  misplaced,  insignificant  blocks  of  human 


12  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

habitation.  Under  the  trees  of  Gray's  Inn  gardens  may 
be  seen  two  modest  tenements,  each  of  them  comprising 
some  six  or  eight  rooms  and  a  vestibule.  At  the  present 
time  they  are  occupied  as  offices  by  legal  practitioners, 
and  many  a  day  has  passed  since  womanly  taste  decorated 
their  windows  with  flowers  and  muslin  curtains;  but  a 
certain  venerable  gentleman,  to  whom  the  writer  of  this 
page  is  indebted  for  much  information  about  the  lawyers 
of  the  last  century,  can  remember  when  each  of  those 
cottages  was  inhabited  by  a  barrister,  his  young  wife,  and 
three  or  four  lovely  children.  Into  some  such  a  house 
near  Lincoln's  Inn,  a  young  lawyer  who  was  destined  to 
hold  the  seals  for  many  years,  and  be  also  the  father  of  a 
Lord  Chancellor,  married  in  the  year  of  our  Lord,  1718, 
His  name  was  Philip  Torke:  and  though  he  was  of 
humble  birth,  he  had  made  such  a  figure  in  his  profession 
that  great  men's  doors  were  open  to  him.  He  was  asked 
to  dinner  by  learned  judges,  and  invited  to  balls  by  their 
ladies.  In  Chancery  Lane,  at  the  house  of  Sir  Joseph 
Jekyll,  Master  of  the  Kolls,  he  met  Mrs.  Lygon,  a  beau- 
teous and  wealthy  widow,  whose  father  was  a  country 
squire,  and  whose  mother  was  the  sister  of  the  great  Lord 
Somers.  In  fact,  she  was  a  lady  of  such  birth,  position, 
and  jointure,  that  the  young  lawyer — rising  man  though 
he  was — seemed  a  poor  match  for  her.  The  lady's  family 
thought  so;  and  if  Sir  Joseph  Jekyll  had  not  cordially 
supported  the  suitor  with  a  letter  of  recommendation, 
her  father  would  have  rejected  him  as  a  man  too  humble 
in  rank  and  fortune.  Having  won  the  lady  and  married 
her,  Mr.  Philip  Yorke  brought  her  home  to  a  '  very  small 
house'  near  Lincoln's  Inn;  and  in  that  lowly  dwelling, 
the  ground-floor  of  which  was  the  barrister's  office,  they 
spent  the  first  years  of  their  wedded  life.  What  would 
be  said  of  the  rising  barrister  who,.now-a-days,  on  his 
marriage  with  a  rich  squire's  rich  daughter  and  a  peer's 


Houses  and  Householders.  13 

niece,  should  propose  to  set  up  his  household  gods  in  a 
tiny  crip  just  outside  Lincoln's  Inn  gate,  and  to  use  the 
parlor  of  the  '  very  small  house'  for  professional  purposes? 
Far  from  being  guilty  of  unseemly  parsimony  in  this 
arrangement,  Philip  Yorke  paid  proper  consideration  to 
his  wife's  social  advantages,  in  taking  her  to  a  separate 
house.  His  contemporaries  amongst  the  junior  bar 
would  have  felt  no  astonishment  if  he  had  fitted  up  a  set 
of  chambers  for  his  wealthy  and  well-descended  bride. 
Not  merely  in  his  day,  but  for  long  years  afterward, 
lawyers  of  gentle  birth  and  comfortable  means,  who  mar- 
ried women  scarcely  if  at  all  inferior  to  Mrs.  Yorke  in 
social  condition,  lived  upon  the  flats  of  Lincoln's  Inn  and 
the  Temple. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE   LAST    OF    THE   LADIES. 


WHATEVER  its  drawbacks,  the  system  which  en- 
couraged the  young  barrister  to  marry  on  a  modest 
income,  and  make  his  wife  'happy  in  chambers,'  must 
have  had  special  advantages.  In  their  Inn  the  husband 
was  near  every  source  of  diversion  for  which  he  greatly 
cared,  and  the  wife  was  surrounded  by  the  friends  of 
either  sex  in  whose  society  she  took  most  pleasure — 
friends  who,  like  herself,  '  lived  in  the  Inn,'  or  in  one  of 
the  immediately  adjacent  streets.  .  In  'hall'  he  dined  and 
drank  wine  with  his  professional  compeers  and  the  wits 
of  the  bar  :  the  '  library '  supplied  him  not  only  with  law 
books,  but  with  poems  and  dramas,  with  merry  trifles 
written  for  the  stage,  and  satires  fresh  from  the  Row  ; 
'  the  chapel ' — or  if  he  were  a  Templer,  '  the  church ' — 
was  his  habitual  place  of  worship,  where  there  were  sit- 


14  A  Boole  about  Lawyers. 

tings  for  his  wife  and  children  as  well  as  for  himself  ;  on 
'the  walks  and  under  the  shady  trees  of  '  the  garden  '  he 
sauntered  with  his  own,  or,  better  still,  a  friend's  wife, 
criticising  the  passers,  describing  the  new  comedy,  or 
talking  over  the  last  ball  given  by  a  judge's  lady.  At 
times  those  gardens  were  pervaded  by  the  calm  of  colle- 
giate seclusion,  but  on  '  open  days  '  they  were  brisk  with 
life.  The  women  and  children  of  the  legal  colony  walked 
in  them  daily  ;  the  ladies  attired  in  their  newest  fashions, 
and  the  children  running  with  musical  riot  over  lawns  and 
paths.  Nor  were  the  grounds  mere  places  of  resort  for 
lawyers  and  their  families.  Taking  rank  amongst  the 
pleasant  places  of  the  metropolis,  they  attracted,  on  '  open 
days,'  crowds  from  every  quarter  of  the  town — ladies  and 
gallants  from  Soho  Square  and  St.  James's  Street,  from 
Whitehall  and  Westminster ;  sightseers  from  the  country 
and  gorgeous  alderwomic  dowagers  from  Cheapsido. 
From  the  days  of  Elizabeth  till  the  middle,  indeed  till  the 
close,  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  ornamental  grounds 
of  the  four  great  Inns  were  places  of  fashionable  prome- 
nade, where  the  rank  and  talent  and  beauty  of  the  town 
assembled  for  display  and  exercise,  even  as  in  our  own 
time  they  assemble  (less  universally)  in  Hyde  Park  and 
Kensington  Gardens. 

When  ladies  and  children  had  withdrawn,  the  quietude 
of  the  gardens  lured  from  their  chambers  scholars  and 
poets,  who  under  murmuring  branches  pondered  the  re- 
sults of  past  study,  or  planned  new  works.  Ben  Jonson 
was  accustomed  to  saunter  beneath  the  elms  of  Lincoln's 
Inn  ;  and  Steele — alike  on  '  open  '  and  '  close '  days — used 
to  frequent  the  gardens  of  the  same  society.  "  I  went," 
he  writes  in  May,  1800,  "  into  Lincoln's  Inn  Walks,  and 
having  taking  a  round  or  two,  I  sat  down,  according  to 
the  allowed  familiarity  of  these  places,  on  a  bench."  In 
the  following  November  he  alludes  to  the  privilege  that  he 


Houses  and  Householders.  15 

enjoyed  of  walking  there  as  "a  favor  that  is  indulged 
me  by  several  of  the  benchers,  who  are  very  intimate 
friends,  and  grown  in  the  neighborhood." 

But  though  on  certain  days,  and  under  fixed  regula- 
tions, the  outside  public  were  admitted  to  the  college 
gardens,  the  assemblages  were  always  pervaded  by  the 
tone  and  humor  of  the  law.  The  courtiers  and  grand 
ladies  from  '  the  west '  felt  themselves  the  guests  of  the 
lawyers  ;  and  the  humbler  folk,  who  by  special  grant  had 
acquired  the  privilege  of  entry,  or  whose  decent  attire 
and  aspect  satisfied  the  janitors  of  their  respectability, 
moved  about  with  watchfulness  and  gravity,  surveying 
the  counsellors  and  their  ladies  with  admiring  eyes,  and 
extolling  the  benchers  whose  benevolence  permitted  sim- 
ple tradespeople  to  take  the  air  side  by  side  with  '  the 
quality.'  In  1736,  James  Ralph,  in  his  '  New  Critical 
Review  of  the  Publick  Buildings,'  wrote  about  the  square 
and  gardens  of  Lincoln's  Inn  in  a  manner  which  testifies 
to  the  respectful  gratitude  of  the  public  for  the  liberality 
which  permitted  all  outwardly  decent  persons  to  walk  in 
the  grounds.  "I  may  safely  add,"  he  says, "  that  no  area 
anywhere  is  kept  in  better  order,  either  for  cleanliness 
and  beauty  by  day,  or  illumination  by  night  ;  the  foun- 
tain in  the  middle  is  a  very  pretty  decoration,  and  if  it 
was  still  kept  playing,  as  it  was  some  years  ago,  'twould 
preserve  its  name  with  more  propriety."  In  his  remarks 
on  the  chapel  the  guide  observes,  "  The  raising  this 
chapel  on  pillars  affords  a  pleasing,  melancholy  walk  un- 
derneath, and  by  night,  particularly,  when  illuminated 
by  the  lamps,  it  has  an  effect  that  may  be  felt,  but  not 
described."  Of  the  gardens  Mr.  Ralph  could  not  speak 
in  high  praise,  for  they  were  ill-arranged  and  not  so 
carefully  kept  as  the  square  ;  but  he  observes,  "  they  are 
convenient ;  and  considering  their  situation  cannot  be 
esteemed  to   much.     There  is   something  hospitable  in 


16  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

laying  them  open  to  public  use  ;  and  while  we  share  in 
their  pleasures,  we  have  no  title  to  arraign  their  taste." 

The  chief  attraction  of  Lincoln's  Inn  gardens,  apart 
from  its  beautiful  trees,  was  for  many  years  the  terrace 
overlooking  '  the  Fields/  which  was  made  temp.  Car.  II. 
at  the  cost  of  nearly  .£1000.  Dugdale,  speaking  of  the 
recent  improvements  of  the  Inn,  says,  "  And  the  last  was 
the  enlargement  of  their  garden,  beautifying  with  a  large 
tarras  walk  on  the  west  side  thereof,  and  raising  the  wall 
higher  towards  Lincoln's  Inne  Fields,  which  was  done 
in  An.  1663  (15  Car.  II.),  the  charge  thereof  amounting 
to  a  little  less  than  a  thousand  pounds,  by  reason  that 
the  levelling  of  most  part  of  the  ground,  and  raising  the 
tarras,  required  such  great  labor."  A  portion  of  this 
terrace,  and  some  of  the  old  trees,  were  destroyed  to 
make  room  for  the  new  dining-hall. 

The  old  system  supplied  the  barrister  with  Other 
sources  of  recreation.  Within  a  stone's  throw  of  his 
residence  was  the  hotel  where  his  club  had  its  weekly 
meeting.  Either  in  hall,  or  with  his  family,  or  at  a 
tavern  near  '  the  courts,'  it  was  his  use,  until  a  compara- 
tively recent  date,  to  dine  in  the  middle  of  the  day,  and 
work  again  after  the  meal.  Courts  sat  after  dinner  as 
well  as  before  ;  and  it  was  observable  that  counsellors 
spoke  far  better  when  they  were  full  of  wine  and  vension 
than  when  they  stated  the  case  in  the  earlier  part  of  the 
day.  But  in  the  evening  the  system  told  especially  in 
the  barrister's  favor.  All  his  many  friends  lying  within 
a  small  circle,  he  had  an  abundance  of  congenial  society. 
Brother-circuiteers  came  to  his  wife's  drawing-room  for 
tea  and  chat,  coffee  and  cards.  There  was  a  substantial 
supper  at  half-past  eight  or  nine  for  such  guests  (supper 
cooked  in  my  lady's  little  kitchen,  or  supplied  by  the 
'Society's  cook');  and  the  smoking  dishes  were  accom- 
panied by  foaming  tankards  of  ale  or  porter,  and  followed 


Houses  and  Householders.  17 

by  superb  and  richly  aromatic  bowls  of  punch.  On  oc- 
casions when  the  learned  man  worked  hard  and  shut  out 
visitors  by  sporting  his  oak.  he  enjoyed  privacy  as  un- 
broken and  complete  as  that  of  any  library  in  Kensington 
or  Tyburnia.  If  friends  stayed  away,  and  he  wished  for 
diversion,  he  could  run  into  the  chambers  of  old  col- 
lege-chums, or  with  his  wife's  gracious  permission  could 
spend  an  hour  at  Chatelin's  or  Nando's,  or  any  other 
coffeehouse  in  vogue  with  members  of  his  profession. 
During  festive  seasons,  when  the  judges'  and  leaders' 
ladies  gave  their  grand  balls,  the  young  couple  needed  no 
carriage  for  visiting  purposes.  From  Gray's  Inn  to  the 
Temple  they  walked — if  the  weather  was  fine.  When  it 
rained  they  hailed  a  hackney-coach,  or  my  lady  was 
popped  into  a  sedan  and  carried  by  running  bearers  to 
the  frolic  of  the  hour. 

Of  course  the  notes  of  the-  preceding  paragraphs  of 
this  chapter  are  but  suggestions  as  to  the  mode  in  which 
the  artisic  reader  must  call  up  the  life  of  the  old  lawyers. 
Encouraging  him  to  realize  the  manners  and  usages  of 
several  centuries,  not  of  a  single  generation,  they  do  not 
attempt  to  entertain  the  student  with  details.  It  is  need- 
less to  say  that  the  young  couple  did  not  use  hackney- 
coaches  in  times  prior  to  the  introduction  of  those  ser- 
viceable vehicles,  and  that  until  sedans  were  invented  my 
lady  never  used  them. 

It  is  possible,  indeed  it  is  certain,  that  married  ladies 
living  in  chambers  occasionally  had  for  neighbors  on 
the  same  staircase  women  whom  they  regarded  with  ab- 
horrence. Sometimes  it  happened  that  a  dissolute  bar- 
rister introduced  to  his  rooms  a  woman  more  beautiful 
than  virtuous,  whom  he  had  not  married,  though  he 
called  her  his  wife.  People  can  no  more  choose  their 
neighbors  in  a  house  broken  up  into  sets  of  chambers, 
than  they  can  choose  them  in  the  street.     But  the  cases 


18  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

where  ladies  were  daily  liable  to  meet  an  offensive  neigh- 
bor on  their  common  staircase  were  comparatively  rare  ; 
and  when  the  annoyance  actually  occurred,  the  discipline 
of  the  Inn  afforded  a  remedy. 

Uncleannes8  too  often  lurked  within  the  camp,  but  it 
vieled  its  face  ;  and  though  in  rare  cases  the  error  and 
sin  of  a  powerful  lawyer  may  have  been  notorious,  the" 
preccant  man  was  careful  to  surround  himself  with  such 
ah  appearance  of  respectability  that  society  sould  easily 
feign  ignorance  of  his  offence.  An  Elizabethan  distich — 
familiar  to  all  barristers,  but  too  rudely  worded  for  in- 
sertion in  this  page — informs  us  that  in  the  sixteenth 
century  Gray's  Inn  had  an  unenviable  notoriety  amongst 
legal  hospices  for  the  shamelessness  of  its  female  inmates. 
But  the  pungent  lines  must  be  regarded  as  a  satire  aimed 
at  certain  exceptional  members,  rather  than  as  a  vivacious 
picture  of  the  general  tone  of  morals  in  the  society. 
Anyhow  the  fact  that  Gray's  Inn*  was  alone  designated 
as  a  home  for  infamy — whilst  the  Inner  Temple  was 
pointed  to  as  the  hospice  most  popular  with  rich  men,  the 
Middle  Temple  as  the  society  frequented  by  Templars  of 
narrow  means,  and  Lincoln's  Inn  as  the  abode  of  gentle- 
men— is,  of  itself,  a  proof  that  the  pervading  manners  of 
the  last  three  institutions  were  outwardly  decorous.  Un- 
der the  least  favorable  circumstances,  a  barrister's  wife 
living  in  chambers,  within  or  near  Lincoln's  Inn,  or  the 
Temple,  during  Charles  LT.'s  reign,  fared  as  well  in  this 


*  The  scandalous  state  of  Gray's  Inn  at  this  period  Is  shown  by  the  following 
passage  in  Dngdale's  '  Origines  : ' — "In  23  Kliz.  (30  Jan.)  there  was  an  order  made 
that  no  laundress,  nor  women  called  victuallers,  should  thenceforth  come  into  the 
gentlemen's  chambers  of  this  society,  until  they  were  full  forty  years  of  age,  and 
not  send  their  maid-servants,  of  what  age  soever,  int  the  said  gentlemen's 
chambers,  upon  penalty,  for  the  first  offence  of  him  that  should  admit  of  any 
such,  to  be  put  out  of  Commons  :  and  for  the  second,  to  be  expelled  the  House." 
The  stringency  and  severity  of  this  order  show  a  determination  on  the  part  of  the 
authorities  to  cure  the  eviL 


Houses  and  Householders.  19 

respect  as  she  would  have  done  had  Fortune  made  her  a 
lady-in-waiting  at  Whitehall. 

A  good  story  is  told  of  certain  visits  paid  to  William 
Murray's  chambers  at  No.  5,  King's  Bench  Walk  Temple. 
in  the  year  1738.     Born  in   1705,   Murray  was   still  a 
young  man  when  in  1738  he  made  his  brilliant  speech  in 
behalf  of  Colonel  Sloper,  against  whom  Colley  Cibber's 
rascally  son  had  brought  an  action  for  crim.  con.  with  his 
wife — the  lovely  actress  who  was  the  rival  of  Mrs.  Clive. 
Amongst  the  many  clients  who  were  drawn  to  Murray  by 
that  speech,  Sarah,  Duchess  of  Marlborough,  was  neither 
the  least  powerful  nor  the  least  distinguished.     Her  grace 
began  by  sending  the  rising  advocate  a  general  retainer, 
with  a  fee  of  a  thousand  guineas;  of  which  sum  he  accepted 
only  the  two-hundredth  part,  explaining  to  the  astonished 
duchess  that  "the  professional  fee,  with  a  general  retainer, 
could  neither  be  less  nor  more  than  five  guineas."    If 
Murray  had  accepted  the  whole  sum  he  would  not  have 
been  overpaid  for  his  trouble  ;  for  her  grace  persecuted 
him  with  calls  at  most  unseasonable  hours.     On  one  oc- 
casion, returning  to  his  chambers  after  "  drinking  cham- 
pagne with  the  wits,"  he  found  the  duchess's  carriage  and 
attendants  on  King's  Bench  Walk.     A  numerous  crowd 
of  footmen  and  link-bearers  surrounded  the  coach  ;  and 
when  the  barrister  entered  his  chambers  he  encountered 
the  mistress  of  that  army  of  lackeys.     "  Young  man," 
exclaimed  the  grand  lady,  eying  the  future  Lord  Mans- 
field with  a  look  of  warm  displeasure,  "  if  you  mean  to  rise 
in  the  world,  you  must  not  sup  out.     On  a  subsequent 
night  Sarah  of  Marlborough  called  without  appointment 
at  the  same  chambers,  and  waited  till  past  midnight  in  the 
hope  that  she  would  see  the  lawyer  ere  she  went  to  bed. 
But  Murray  being   at  an  unsually  late   supper-party, 
did  not  return  till  her  grace  had  departed  in  an  over- 
powering rage.     "I  could  not  make   out,  sir,  who  she 


20  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

was,"  said  Murray's  clerk,  describing  her  grace's 
appearance  and  manner,  "  for  she  would  not  tell  me  her 
name  ;  but  she  swore  so  dreadfully  that  I  am  sure  she  must 
be  a  lady  of  quality." 

Perhaps  the  Inns  of  Court  may  still  shelter  a  few  mar- 
ried ladies,  who  either  from  love  of  old-world  ways,  or 
from  stern  necessity,  consent  to  dwell  in  their  husbands' 
chambers.  If  such  ladies  can  at  the  present  time  be  found, 
the  writer  of  this  page  would  look  for  them  in  Gray's  Inn 
— that  straggling  caravansary  for  the  reception  of  money- 
lenders, Bohemians,  and  eccentric  gentlemen — rather  than 
in  the  other  three  Inns  of  Court,  which  have  undoubtedly 
quite  lost  their  old  population  of  lady-residents.  But 
from  those  three  hospices  the  last  of  the  ladies  must  have 
retreated  at  a  comparatively  recent  date.  Fifteen  years 
since,  when  the  writer  of  this  book  was  a  beardless  under- 
graduate, he  had  the  honor  of  knowing  some  married 
ladies,  of  good  family  and  unblemished  repute,  who  lived 
with  their  husbands  in  the  Middle  Temple.  One  of  those 
ladies — the  daughter  of  a  country  magistrate,  the  sister  of 
a  distinguished  classic  scholar — was  the  wife  of  a  common 
law  barrister  who  now  holds  a  judicial  appointment  in  one 
of  our  colonies.  The  women  of  her  old  home  circle  oc- 
casionally called  on  this  young  wife  :  but  as  they  could 
not  reach  her  quarters  in  Sycamore  Court  without  attract- 
ing much  unpleasant  observation,  their  visits  were  not 
frequent.  Living  in  a  barrack  of  unwed  men,  that 
charming  girl  was  surrounded  by  honest  fellows  who 
would  have  resented  as  an  insult  to  themselves  an  imper- 
tinence offered  to  her.  Still  her  life  was  abnormal, 
unnatural,  deleterious  ;  it  was  felt  by  all  who  cared  for 
her  that  she  ought  not  to  be  where  she  was  ;  and  when 
an  appointment  with  a  good  income  in  a  healthy  and 
thriving  colony  was  offered  to  her  husband,  all  who  knew 
her,  and  many  who  had  never  spoken  to  her,  rejoiced  at 
the  intelligence.     At  the  present  time,  in  the  far  distant 


Houses  and  Householders.  21 

country  which  looks  up  to  her  as  a  personage  of  impor- 
tance, this  lady — not  less  exemplary  as  wife  and  mother 
than  brilliant  as  a  woman  of  society — takes  pleasure  in 
recalling  the  days  when  she^was  a  prisoner  in  the  Temple. 

One  of  the  last  cases  of  married  life  in  the  Temple,  that 
came  before  the  public  notice,  was  that  of  a  barrister  and 
his  wife  who  incurred  obloquy  and  punishment  for  their 
brutal  conduct  to  a  poor  servant  girl.  No  one  would 
thank  the  writer  for  re-publishing  the  details  of  that 
nauseous  illustration  of  the  degradation  to  wbich  it  is 
possible  for  a  gentleman  and  scholar  to  sink.  But,  how- 
ever revolting,  the  case  is  not  without  interest  for  the 
reader  who  is  curious  about  the  social  life  of  the  Temple. 

The  portion  of  the  Temple  in  which  the  old-world 
family  life  of  the  Inns  held  out  the  longest,  is  a  clump  of 
commodious  houses  lying  between  the  Middle  Temple 
Garden  and  Essex  Street,  Strand.  Having  their  en- 
trance-doors in  Essex  Street,  these  houses  are,  in  fact, 
as  private  as  the  residences  of  any  London  quarter. 
The  noise  of  the  Strand  reaches  them,  but  their  occu- 
pants are  as  secure  from  the  impertinent  gaze  or  unwel- 
come familiarities  of  law-students  and  barristers'  clerks, 
as  they  would  be  if  they  lived  at  St.  John's  Wood.  In 
Essex  Street,  on  the  eastern  side,  the  legal  families  main- 
tained their  ground  almost  till  yesterday.  Fifteen  years 
since  the  writer  of  this  page  used  to  be  invited  to  dinners 
and  dances  in  that  street — dinners  and  dances  which 
were  attended  by  prosperous  gentlefolk  from  the  "West 
End  of  the  town.  At  that  time  he  often  waltzed  in  a 
drawing-room,  the  windows  of  which  looked  upon  the 
spray  of  the  fountain — at  which  Ruth  Pinch  loved  to 
gaze  when  its  jet  resembled  a  wagoner's  whip.  How  all 
old  and  precious  things  pass  away !  The  dear  old 
'  wagoner's  whip '  has  been  replaced  by  a  pert,  perky 
squirt  that  will  never  stir  the  heart  or  brain  of  a  future 
Ruth. 


22  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

CHAPTER   m. 

YORK   HOUSE   AND   POWIS   HOUSE. 

TTTHILST  the  great  body  of  lawyers  dwelt  in  or  hard 
V  V  by  the  Inns,  the  dignitaries  of  the  judicial  bench, 
and  the  more  eminent  members  of  the  bar,  had  suitable 
palaces  or  mansions  at  greater  or  less  distances  from  the 
legal  hostelries.  The  ecclesiastical  Chancellors  usually 
enjoyed  episcopal  or  archiepiscopal  rank,  and  lived  in  the 
London  palaces  attached  to  their  sees  or  provinces.  Du- 
ring his  tenure  of  the  seals,  Morton,  Bishop  of  Ely,  years 
before  he  succeeded  to  the  archbishopric  of  Canterbury, 
and  received  the  honors  of  the  Cardinalate,  grew  straw-  „ 
berries  in  his  garden  on  Holborn  Hill,  and  lived  in  the 
palace  surrounded  by  that  garden.  As  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  Chancellor  Warham  maintained  at  Lam- 
beth Palace  the  imposing  state  commemorated  by  Eras- 
mus. 

When  Wolsey  made  his  first  progress  to  the  Court  of 
Chancery  in  "Westminster  Hall,  a  progress  already  alluded 
to  in  these  pages,  he  started  from  the  archiepiscopal  palace, 
York  House  or  Place — an  official  residence  sold  by  the 
cardinal  to  Henry  "Viii.  some  years  later ;  and  when  the 
same  superb  ecclesiastic,  towards  the  close  of  his  career, 
went  on  the  memorable  embassy  to  France,  he  set  out 
from  his  palace  at  Westminster,  "passing  through  all 
London  over  London  Bridge,  having  before  him  of  gen- 
tlemen a  great  number,  three  in  rank  in  black  velvet  % 
livery  coats,  and  the  most  of  them  with  great  chains  of 
gold  about  their  necks." 

At  later  dates  Gardyner,  whilst  he  held  the  seals,  kept 
his  numerous  household  at  Winchester  House  in  South- 


Houses  and  Householders.  23 

wark  ;  and  Williams,  the  last  clerical  Lord  Keeper,  lived 
at  the  Deanery,  Westminster. 

The  lay  Chancellors  also  maintained  costly  and  pom- 
pous establishments,  apart  from  the  Inns  of  Court.  Sir 
Thomas  More's  house  stood  in  the  country,  flanked  by 
a  garden  and  farm,  in  the  cultivation  of  which  ground 
the  Chancellor  found  one  of  his  chief  sources  of  amuse- 
ment. In  Aldgate,  Lord  Chancellor  Audley  built  his 
town  mansion,  on  the  site  of  the  Priory  of  the  Canons 
of  the  Holy  Trinity  of  Christ  Church.  Wriothesley  dwelt 
in  Holborn  at  the  height  of  his  unsteady  fortunes,  and  at 
the  time  of  his  death.  The  infamous  but  singularly  lucky 
Rich  lived  in  Great  St.  Bartholomew's,  and  from  his  man- 
sion there  wrote  to  the  Duke  of  Northumberland,  implor- 
ing that  messengers  might  be  sent  to  him  to  relieve  him 
of  the  perilous  trust  of  the  Great  Seal.  Christopher 
Hatton  wrested  from  the  see  of  Ely  the  site  of  Holborn, 
whereon  he  built  his  magnificent  palace.  The  reluctance 
with  which  the  Bishop  of  Ely  surrendered  the  ground, 
and  the  imperious  letter  by  which  Elizabeth  compelled 
the  prelate  to  comply  with  the  wish  of  her  favorite  cour- 
tier, form  one  of  the  humorous  episodes  of  that  queen's 
reign.  Hatton  House  rose  over  the  soil  which  had  yielded 
strawberries  to  Morton  ;  and  of  that  house — where  the 
dancing  Chancellor  received  Elizabeth  as  a  visitor,  and  in 
which  he  died  of  "  diabetes  and  grief  of  mind  " — the 
memory  is  preserved  by  Hatton  Garden,  the  name  of  the 
street  where  some  of  our  wealthiest  jewelers  and  gold 
assayers  have  places  of  business. 

•  Public  convenience  had  long  suggested  the  expediency 
of  establishing  a  permanent  residence  for  the  Chancellors 
of  England,  when  either  by  successive  expressions  of  the 
royal  will,  or  by  the  individual  ohoice  of  several  succes- 
sive holders  of  the  Glavis  Regni,  a  noble  palace  on  the 
northern  bank  of  the  Thames  came  to  be  regarded  as  the 


24  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

proper  domicile  for  the  Great  Seal.  York  House,  me- 
morable as  the  birthplace  of  Francis  Bacon,  and  the  scene 
of  his  brightest  social  splendor,  demands  a  brief  notice. 
"Wolsey's  *  York  House '  or  Whitehall  having  passed  from 
the  province  of  York  to  the  crown,  Nicholas  Heath, 
Archbishop  of  York,  established  himself  in  another  York 
House  on  a  site  lying  between  the  Strand  and  the  river. 
In  this  palace  (formerly  leased  to  the  see  of  Norwich  as  a 
bishop's  Inn,  and  subsequently  conferred  on  Charles 
Brandon  by  Henry  VHL)  Heath  resided  during  his 
Chancellorship  ;  and  when,  in  consequence  of  his  refusal 
to  take  the  oath  of  supremacy,  Elizabeth  deprived  him  of 
his  archbishopric,  York  House  passed  into  the  hands  of 
her  new  Lord  Keeper,  Sir  Nicholas  Bacon.  On  succeed- 
ing to  the  honors  of  the  Marble  Chair,  Hatton  did  not 
move  from  Holborn  to  the  Strand  ;  but  otherwise  all  the 
holders  of  the  Great  SeaL  from  Heath  to  Francis  Bacon 
inclusive,  seem  to  have  occupied  York  House  ;  Heath,  of 
course,  using  it  by  right  as  Archbishop  of  York,  and  the 
others  holding  it  under  leases  granted  by  successive  arch- 
bishops of  the  northern  province.  So  little  is  known  of 
Bromley,  apart  from  the  course  which  he  took  towards 
Mary  of  Scotland,  that  the  memory  of  old  York  House 
gains  nothing  of  interest  from  him.  Indeed  it  has  been 
questioned  whether  he  was  one  of  its  tenants.  Puckering, 
Egerton,  and  Francis  Bacon  certainly  inhabited  it  in  suc- 
cession. On  Bacon's  fall  it  was  granted  to  Buckingham, 
whose  desire  to  possess  the  picturesque  palace  was  one  of 
the  motives  which  impelled  him  to  blacken  the  great 
lawyer's  reputation.  Seized  by  the  Long  Parliament,  it 
was  granted  to  Lord  Fairfax.  In  the  following  genera- 
tion it  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  second  Duke  of  Buck- 
ingham, who  sold  house  and  precinct  for  building-ground. 
The  bad  memory  of  the  man  who  thus  for  gold  surrendered 
a  spot  of  earth  sacred  to  every  scholarly  Englishman  is 


Houses  and  Householders.  25 

preserved  in  the  names  of  George  Street,  Duke  Street," 
I  'i liters  Street,  Buckingham  Street. 

The  engravings  commonly  sold  as  pictures  of  the 
York  House,  in  which  Lord  Bacon  kept  the  seals,  are 
likenesses  of  the  building  after  it  was  pulled  about, 
diminished,  and  modernized,  and  in  no  way  whatever 
represent  the  architecture  of  the  original  edifice.  Amongst 
the  art-treasures  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  Mr.  Hep- 
worth  Dixon  fortunately  found  a  rough  sketch  of  the  real 
house,  from  which  sketch  Mr.  E.  M.  Ward  drew  the 
vignette  that  embellishes  the  title-page  of  '  The  Story  of 
Lord  Bacon's  Life.' 

After  the  expulsion  of  the  Great  Seal  from  old  York 
House,  it  wandered  from  house  to  house,  manifesting, 
however,  in  its  selections  of  London  quarters,  a  prefe- 
rence for  the  grand  line  of  thoroughfare  between  Charing 
Cross  and  the  foot  of  Ludgate  Hill.  Escaping  from  the 
Westminster  Deanery,  where  Williams  kept  it  in  a  box, 
the  Claris  Regni  inhabited  Durham  House,  Strand,  whilst 
under  Lord  Keeper  Coventry's  care.  Lord  Keeper 
Littleton,  until  he  made  his  famous  ride  from  "London  to 
York,  lived  in  Exeter  House.  Clarendon  resided  in 
Dorset  House,  Salisbury  Court,  Fleet  Street,  and  subse- 
quently in  Worcester  House,  Strand,  before  he  removed 
to  the  magnificent  palace  which  aroused  the  indignation 
of  the  public  in  St.  James's  Street.  The  greater  and 
>happier  part  of  his  official  life  was  passed  in  Worcester 
House.  There  he  held  councils  in  his  bed-room  when  he 
was  laid  up  with  gout  ;  there  King  Charles  visited  him 
familiarly,  even  condescending  to  be  present  to  the  bed- 
side councils  ;  and  there  he  was  established  when  the 
Great  Fire  of  London  caused  him,  in  a  panic,  to  send  his 
most  valuable  furniture  to  his  Villa  at  Twickenham. 
Thanet  House,  Aldersgate  Street,  is  the  residence  with 
which  Shaftesbury,  the  politician,  is  most  generally  asso- 
2 


26  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

ciated ;  but  whilst  he  was  Lord  Chancellor  he  occupied 
Exeter  House,  Strand,  formerly  the  abode  of  Keeper 
Littleton.  Lord  Nottingham  slept  with  the  seals  under 
his  pillow  in  Great  Queen  Street,  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields, 
the  same  street  in  which  his  successor,  Lord  Guildford, 
had  the  establishment  so  racily  described  by  his  brother, 
Roger  North.  And  Lord  Jeffreys  moving  westward,  gave 
noisy  dinners  in  Duke  Street,  Westminster,  where  he 
opened  a  court-house  that  was  afterwards  consecrated  as 
a  place  of  worship,  and  is  still  known  as  the  Duke  Street 
Chapel.  Says  Pennant,  describing  the  Chancellor's  resi- 
dence, "  It  is  easily  known  by  a  large  flight  of  stone 
steps,  which  his  royal  master  permitted  to  be  made  into 
the  park  adjacent  for  the  accommodation  of  his  lordship. 
These  steps  terminate  above  in  a  small  court,  on  three 
sides  of  which  stands  the  house."  The  steps  still  remain, 
but  their  history  is  unknown  to  many  of  the  habitual  fre- 
quenters of  the  chapel.  After  Jefferys'  fall  the  spacious 
and  imposing  mansion,  where  the  bon-vivants  of  the  bar 
used  to  drink  inordinately  with  the  wits  and  buffoons  of 
the  London  theatres,  was  occupied  by  Government ;  and 
there  the  Lords  of  the  Admiralty  had  their  offices  until 
they  moved  to  their  quarters  opposite  Scotland  Yard. 
Narcissus  Luttrell's  Diary  contains  the  following  entry  : — 
"April  23,  1690.  The  late  Lord  Chancellor's  house  at 
"Westminster  is  taken  for  the  Lords  of  the  Admiralty  to 
keep  the  Admiralty  Office  at." 

William  HI.,  wishing  to  fix  the  holders  of  the  Great 
Seal  in  a  permanent  official  home,  selected  Powis  House 
"(more  generally  known  by  the  name  of  Newcastle  House), 
in  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields,  as  a  residence  for  Somers  and 
future  Chancellors.  The  Treasury  minute  books  preserve 
an  entry  of  September  11,  1696,  directing  a  Privy  Seal 
to  "  discharge  the  process  for  the  apprised  value  of  the 
house,  and  to  declare  the  king's  pleasure  that  the  Lord 


Houses  and  HouseJtolders.  27 

Keeper  or  Lord  Chancellor  for  the  time  being  should 
have  and  enjoy  it  for  the  accommodation  of  their  offices." 
Soon  after  his  appointment  to  the  seals,  Somers  took 
possession  of  this  mansion  at  the  north-west  corner  of  the 
Fields  ;  and  after  him  Lord  Keeper  Sir  Nathan  Wright, 
Lord  Chancellor  Cowper,  and  Lord  Chancellor  Harcourt 
used  it  as  an  official  residence.  But  the  arrangement 
was  not  acceptable  to  the  legal  dignitaries.  They  pre- 
ferred to  dwell  in  their  private  houses,  from  which  they 
were  not  liable  to  be  driven  by  a  change  of  ministry  or  a 
gust  of  .popular  disfavor.  In  the  year  1711  the  mansion 
was  therefore  sold  to  John  Holies,  Duke  of  Newcastle,  to 
whom  it  is  indebted  for  the  name  which  it  still  bears. 
This  large,  unsightly  mansion  is  known  to  every  one  who 
lives  in  London,  and  has  any  knowledge  of  the  political 
and  social  life  of  the  earlier  Georgian  courtiers  and 
statesmen. 


CHAPTER.  IV. 

Lincoln's  inn  fields. 


THE  annals  of  the  legal  profession  show  that  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Guildhall  was  a  favorite  place  of  resi- 
dence with  the  ancient  lawyers,  who  either  held  judicial 
offices  within  the  circle  of  the  Lord  Mayor's  jurisdiction, 
or  whose  practice  lay  chiefly  in  the  civic  courts.  In  the 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  there  was  quite  a  colony 
of  jurists  hard  by  the  temple  of  Gogmagog  and  Cosineus 
— or  Gog  and  Magog,  as  the  grotesque  giants  are  desig- 
nated by  the  unlearned,  who  know  not  the  history  of  the 
two  famous  effigies,  which  originally  figured  in  an  Eliza- 
bethan pageant,  stirring  the  wonder  of  the  illiterate,  and 


28  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

reminding  scholars  of  two  mythical  heroes  about  whom 
the  curious  reader  of  this  paragraph  may  learrtfurther 
particulars  by  referring  to  Michael  Drayton's '  Polyolbion.' 

In  Milk  Street,  Cheapside,  lived  Sir  John  More,  judge 
in  the  Court  of  King's  Bench;  and  in  Milk  street,  a.  d. 
1480,  was  bom  Sir  John's  famous  son  Thomas,  the 
Chancellor,  who  was  at  the  same  time  learned  and  simple, 
witty  and  pious,  notable  for  gentle  meekness  and  firm 
resolve,  abounding  with  tenderness  and  hot  with  courage. 
Richard  Rich — who  beyond  Scroggs  or  Jeffreys  deserves 
to  be  remembered  as  the  arch-scoundrel  of  the  legal  pro- 
fession— was  one  of  Thomas  More's  playmates  and  boon 
companions  for  several  years  of  their  boyhood  and  youth. 
Richard's  father  was  an  opulent  mercer,  and  one  of  Sir 
John's  near  neighbors;  so  the  youngsters  were  intimate 
until  Master  Dick,  exhibiting  at  an  early  age  his  vicious 
propensities,  came  to  be  "  esteemed  very  Ught  of  his 
tongue,  a  great  dicer  and  gamester,  and  not  of  any  com- 
mendable fame." 

On  marrying  his  first  wife  Sir  Thomas  More  settled 
in  a  house  in  Bucklersbury,  the  City  being  the  proper 
quarter  for  his  residence,  as  he  was  an  under-sheriff  of 
the  city  of  London,  in  which  character  he  both  sat  in  the 
Court  of  the  Lord  Mayor  and  Sheriffs,  and  presided  over 
a  separate  court  on  the  Thursday  of  each  week.  Whilst 
living  in  Bucklersbury  he  had  chambers  in  Lincoln's  Inn. 
On  leaving  Bucklersbury  he  took  a  house  in  Crosby  Place, 
from  which  he  moved,  in  1523,  to  Chelsea,  in  which  parish 
he  built  the  house  that  was  eventually  pulled  down  by 
Sir  Hans  Sloane  in  the  year  1740. 

A  generation  later,  Sir  Nicholas  Bacon  was  living  in 
Noble  Street,  Foster  Lane,  where  he  had  built  the  man- 
sion known  as  Bacon  House,  in  which  he  resided  till,  as 
Lord  Keeper,  he  took  possession  of  York  House.  Chief 
Justice  Bramston  lived,  at  different  parts  of  his  career,  in 


Houses  and  Householders.  29 

"Whitechapel;  in  Philip  Lane,  Aldermanbury;  and  (after 
his  removal  from  Bosworth  Court)  in  "Warwick  Lane,  Sir 
John  Bramston  (the  autobiographer)  married  into  a  house 
in  Charterhouse  Yard,  where  his  father,  the  Chief  Justice, 
resided  with  him  for  a  short  time. 

But  from  an  early  date,  and  especially  during  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  the  more  prosperous 
of  the  working  lawyers  either  lived  within  the  walls  of 
the  Tuns,  or  in  houses  lying  near  the  law  colleges.  Fleet 
Street,  the  Strand,  Holborn,  Chancery  Lane,  and  the 
good  streets  leading  into  those  thoroughfares,  contained 
a  numerous  legal  population  in  the  times  between  Eliza- 
beth's death  and  George  HX's  first  illness.  Kich  benchers 
and  Judges  wishing  -for  more  commodious  quarters  than 
they  could  obtain  at'  any  cost  within  college- walls,  erected 
mansions  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  their  Inns;  and 
their  example  was  followed  by  less  exalted  and  less  opulent 
members  of  the  bar  and  judicial  bench.  The  great  Lord 
Strafford  first  saw  the  light  in  Chancery  Lane,  in  the  house 
of  his  maternal  grandfather,  who  was  a  bencher  of  Lin- 
coln's Inn.  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields  was  principally  built 
for  the  accommodation  of  wealthy  lawyers ;  and  in  Charles 
II.'s  reign  Queen  Street,  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields  was  in  high 
repute  with  legal  magnates.  Sir  Edward  Coke  lived  alter- 
nately in  chambers,  and  in  Hatton  House,  Holborn,  the 
palace  that  came  to  him  by  his  second  marriage.  John 
Kelyng's  house  stood  in  Hatton  Garden,  and  there  he 
died  in  1671.  In  his  mansion  in  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields, 
Sir  Harbottle  Grimston,  on  June  25, 1660  (shortly  before 
his  appointment  to  the  Mastership  of  the  Bolls,  for  which 
place  he  is  said  to  have  given  Clarendon  £8000),  enter- 
tained Charles  U.  and  a  grand  gathering  of  noble  com- 
pany. After  his  marriage  Francis  North  took  his  high- 
born bride  into  chambers,  which  they  inhabited  for  a  short 
time  until  a  house  in  Chancery  Lane,  near  Serjeants'  Inn, 


30  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

was  ready  for  their  use.  On  Nov.  15,  1666, — the  year  of 
the  fire  of  London,  in  which  year  Hyde  had  his  town 
house  in  the  Strand — Glyn  died  in  his  house,  in  Portugal 
Row,  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields.  On  June  15,  1691,  Henry 
Pollexfen,  Chief  Justice  of  Common  Pleas,  expired  in  his 
mansion  in  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields.  These  addresses — 
taken  from  a  list  of  legal  addresses  lying  before  the  writer 
— indicate  with  sufficient  clearness  the  quarter  of  the  town 
in  which  Charles  II. 's  lawyers  mostly  resided. 

Under  Charles  II.  the  population  of  the  Inns  was  such 
that  barristers  wishing  to  marry  could  not  easily  obtain 
commodious  quarters  within  College- walls.  Dugdale  ob- 
serves "  that  all  but  the  benchers  go  two  to  a  chamber: 
a  bencher  hath  only  the  privilege  of  a  chamber  to  himself." 
He  adds — "  if  there  be  any  one  chamber  consisting  of  two 
parts,  and  the  one  part  exceeds  the  other  in  value,  and 
he  who  hath  the  best  part  sells  the  same,  yet  the  purchaser 
shall  enter  into  the  worst  part;  for  it  is  a  certain  ride 
that  the  auntient  in  the  chamber — viz.,  he  who  was 
therein  first  admitted,  without  respect  to  their  antiquity 
in  the  house,  hath  his  choice  of  either  part."  This  cus- 
tom of  sharing  chambers  gave  rise  to  the  word  'chum- 
ming,' an  abbreviation  of  'chambering.'  Barristers  in 
the  present  time  often  share  a  chamber — i.e.,  set  of  rooms. 
In  the  seventeenth  century  an  utter-barrister  found  the 
half  of  a  set  of  rooms  inconveniently  narrow  quarters  for 
himself  and  wife.  By  arranging  privately  with  a  non- 
resident brother  of  the  long  robe,  he  sometimes  obtained 
an  entire  "chamber,"  and  had  the  space  allotted  to  a 
bencher.  "When  he  coidd  not  make  such  an  arrangement, 
he  usually  moved  to  a  house  outside  the  gate,  but  in  the 
immediate  vicinity  of  his  inn,  as  soon  as  his  lady  pre- 
sented him  with  children,  if  not  sooner. 

Of  course  working,  as  well  as  idle,  members  of  the 
profession  were  found  in  other  quarters.     Some  still  lived 


Houses  and  Householders.  31 

in  the  City;  others  preferred  more  fashionable  districts. 
Roger  North,  brother  of  the  Lord  Keeper  and  son  of  a 
peer,  lived  in  the  Piazza  of  Covent  Garden,  in  the  house 
formerly  occupied  by  Lely  the  painter.  To  this  house 
Sir  Dudley  North  moved  from  his  costly  and  dark  mansion 
in  the  City,  and  in  it  he  shortly  afterwards  died,  under 
the  hands  of  Dr.  Radcliffe  and  the  prosperous  apothecary, 
Mr.  St.  Amand.  "He  had  removed,"  writes  Eoger, 
"  from  his  great  house  in  the  City,  and  came  to  that  in  the 
Piazza  which  Sir  Peter  Lely  formerly  used,  and  I  had 
lived  in  alone  for  divers  years.  We  were  so  much  toge- 
ther, and  my  incumbrances  so  small,  that  so  large  a  house 
might  hoLd  us  both."  Roger  was  a  practicing  barrister 
and  Recorder  of  Bristol. 

During  his  latter  years  Sir  John  Bramston  (the  auto- 
biographer),  kept  house  in  Greek  Street,  Soho. 

In  the  time  of  Charles  LT.  the  wealthy  lawyers  often 
maintained  suburban  villas,  where  they  enjoyed  the  air 
and  pastimes  of  the  country.  When  his  wife's  health 
failed,  Francis  North  took  a  villa  for  her  at  Hammer- 
smith, "  for  the  advantage  of  better  air,  which  he  thought 
beneficial  for  her;"  and  whilst  his  household  tarried  there, 
he  never  slept  at  his  chambers  in  town,  "  but  always  went 
home  to  his  family,  and  was  seldom  an  evening  without 
company  agreeable  to  him."  In  his  latter  years,  Chief 
Justice  Pemberton  had  a  rural  mansion  in  Highgate, 
where  his  death  occurred  on  June  10,  1699,  in  the  74th 
year  of  his  age.  A  pleasant  chapter  might  be  written  on 
the  suburban  seats  of  our  great  lawyers  from  the  Resto- 
ration down  to  the  present  time.  Lord  Mansfield's  '  Ken- 
wood '  is  dear  to  all  who  are  curious  in  legal  ana.  Charles 
Yorke  had  a  villa  at  Highgate,  where  he  entertained  his 
political  and  personal  friends.  Holland,  the  architect, 
built  a  villa  at  Dulwich  for  Lord  Thurlow;  and  in  con- 
sequence of  a  quarrel  between  the   Chancellor  and  the 


32  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

builder,  the  former  took  such  a  dislike  to  the  house,  that 
after  its  completion  he  never  slept  a  night  in  it,  though 
he  often  passed  his  holidays  in  a  small  lodge  standing  in 
the  grounds  of  the  valla.  "  Lord  Thurlow,"  asked  a  lady 
of  him,  as  he  was  leaving  the  Queen's  Drawing-room, 
"  when  are  you  going  into  your  new  house  ?"  "  Madam," 
answered  the  surly  Chancellor,  incensed  by  her  curiosity, 
"  the  Queen  has  asked  me  that  impudent  question,  and  I 
would  not  answer  her;  I  will  not  tell  you."  For  years 
Loughborough  and  Erskine  had  houses  in  Hampstead. 
"  In  Lord  Mansfield's  time,"  Erskine  once  said  to  Lord 
Campbell,  "  although  the  King's  Bench  monopolized  all 
the  common-law  business,  the  court  often  rose  at  one  or 
two  o'clock — the  papers,  special,  crown,  and  peremptory, 
being  cleared;  and  then  I  refreshed  myself  by  a  drive  to 
my  villa  at  Hampstead."  It  was  on  Hampstead  Heath 
that  Loughborough,  meeting  Erskine  in  the  dusk,  said, 
"  Erskine,  you  must  not  take  Paine's  brief;"  and  received 
the  prompt  reply,  "  But  I  have  been  retained,  and  I  will 
take  it,  by  G — d !"  Much  of  that  which  is  most  pleasant 
in  Erskine's  career  occurred  at  his  Hampstead  villa.  Of 
Lord  Kenyon's  weekly  trips  from  his  mansion  in  Lincoln's 
Inn  Fields  to  his  farm-house  at  Richmond  notice  has  been 
taken  in  a  previous  chapter.  The  memory  of  Charles 
Abbott's  Hendon  villa  is  preserved  in  the  name,  style,  and 
title  of  Lord  Tenterden,  of  Hendon,  in  the  county  of 
Middlesex.  Indeed,  lawyers  have  for  many  generations 
manifested  much  fondness  for  fresh  air;  the  impure 
atmosphere  of  their  courts  in  past  time  apparently  whet- 
ting their  appetites  for  wholesome  breezes. 

Throughout  the  eighteenth  century  Lincoln's  Inn 
Fields,  an  open  though  disorderly  spot,  was  a  great  place 
for  the  residence  of  legal  magnates.  Somers,  Nathan 
Wright,  Cowper,  Harcourt,  successively  inhabited  Powis 
House.    Chief  Justice  Parker  (subsequently  Lord  Chan- 


Houses  and  Householders  33 

cellor  Macclesfield)  lived  there  when  he  engaged  Philip 
Torke  (then  an  attorney's  articled  clerk,  but  afterwards 
Lord  Chancellor  of  England)  to  be  his  son's  law  tutor.  On 
the  south  side  of  the  square,  Lord  Chancellor  Henley  kept 
high  state  in  the  family  mansion  that  descended  to  him 
on  the  death  of  his  elder  brother,  and  subsequently  passed 
into  the  hands  of  the  Surgeons,  whose  modest  but  conve- 
nient college  stands  upon  its  site.  Wedderburn  and 
Erskine  had  their  mansions  in  Tan  coin's  Inn  Fields,  as 
well  as  their  suburban  villas.  And  between  the  lawyers 
of  the  Restoration  and  the  judges  of  George. HI.'s  reign, 
a  large  proportion  of  our  most  eminent  jurists  and  advo- 
cates lived  in  that  square  and  the  adjoining  streets;  such 
as  Queen  Street  on  the  west,  Serle  Street,  Carey  Street, 
Portugal  Street,  Chancery  Lane,  on  the  south  and  south- 
east. The  reader,  let  it  be  observed,  may  not  infer  that 
this  quarter  was  confined  to  legal  residents.  The  law- 
yers were  the  most  conspicuous  and  influential  occupants; 
but  they  had  for  neighbors  people  of  higher  quality, 
who,  attracted  to  the  square  by  its  openness,  or  the  con- 
venience of  its  site,  or  the  proximity  of  the  law  colleges, 
made  it  their  place  of  abode  in  Loudon.  Such  names  as 
those  of  the  Earl  of  Lindsey  and  the  Earl  of  Sandwich  in 
the  seventeenth,  and  of  the  Duke  of  Ancaster  and  the 
Duke  of  Newcastle  in  the  eighteeeth  century,  establish 
the  patrician  character  of  the  quarter  for  many  years, 
Moreover,  from  the  books  of  popular  antiquaries,  a  long 
list  might  be  made  of  wits,  men  of  science,  and  minor 
celebrities,  who,  though  in  no  way  personally  connected 
with  the  law,  lived  during  the  same  period  under  the 
shadow  of  Lincoln's  Inn. 

"Whilst  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields  took  rank  amongst  the 
most  aristocratic  quarters  of  the  toAvn,  it  was  as  disorderly 
a  square  as  coidd  be  found  in  all  London.     Royal  sug- 
gestions,  the  labors  of  a  learned  committee  especially 
2* 


Si  A  Book  about  Lawyers.  n 

appointed  by  Jumes  I.  to  decide  on  a  proper  system  of 
architecture,  and  Inigo  Jones's  magnificent  but  abortive 
scheme  had  but  a  poor  result.  In  Queen  Anne's  reign, 
and  for  twenty  years  later,  the  open  space  of  the  fields 
was  daily  crowded  with  beggars,  mountebanks,  and  noisy 
rabble ;  and  it  was  the  scene  of  constant  uproar  and  fre- 
quent riots.  As  soon  as  a  nobleman's  coach  drew  up 
before  one  of  the  surrounding  mansions,  a  mob  of  half- 
naked  rascals  swarmed  about  the  equipage,  asking  for 
alms  in  alternate  tones  of  entreaty  and  menace.  Pugi- 
listic encounters,  and  fights  resembling  the  faction  fights 
of  an  Irish  row,  were  of  daily  occurrence  there;  and  when 
the  rabble  decided  on  torturing  a  bull  with  dogs,  the 
wretched  beast  was  tied  to  a  stake  in  the  centre  of  the 
wide  area,  and  there  baited  in  the  presence  of  a  ferocious 
multitude,  and  to  the  diversion  «of  fashionable  ladies,  who 
watched  the  scene  from  their  drawing-room  windows. 
The  Sacheverell  outrage  was  wildest  in  this  chosen  quar- 
ter of  noblemen  and  blackguards;  and  in  George  II. 's 
reign,  when  Sir  Joseph  Jekyll,  the  Master  of  the  Rolls, 
made  himself  odious  to  the  lowest  class  by  his  Act  for 
laying  an  excise  upon  gin,  a  mob  assailed  him  in  the 
middle  of  the  fields,  threw  him  to  the  ground,  kicked 
him  over  and  over,  and  savagely  trampled  upon  him.  It 
was  a  marvel  that  he  escaped  with  his  life;  but  with 
characteristic  good  Tmmor,  he  soon  made  a  joke  of  his 
ill-usage,  saying  that  until  the  mob  made  him  their  foot- 
ball he  had  never  been  master  of  all  the  rolls.  Soon 
after  this  outbreak  of  popular  violence,  the  inhabitants 
enclosed  the  middle  of  the  area  with  palisades,  and 
turned  the  enclosure  into  an  ornamental  garden.  De- 
scribing the  Fields  in  1736,  the  year  in  which  the  ob- 
noxious Act  concerning  gin  became  law,  James  Ralph 
says,  "  Several  of  the  original  houses  still  remain,  to  be 
a  reproach  to  the  rest;  and  I  wish  the  disadvantageous 


Houses  and  Householders.  35 

comparison  had  been  a  warning  to  others  to  have  avoided 

a  like  mistake But  this  is  not  the  only  quarrel 

I  have  to  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields.  The  area  is  capable  of 
the  highest  improvement,  might  be  made  a  credit  to 
the  whole  city,  and  do  honor  to  those  who  live  round  it ; 
whereas  at  present  no  place  can  be  more  contemptible  or 
forbidding;  in  short,  it  serves  only  as  a  nursery  for  beg- 
gars and  thieves,  and  is  a  daily  reflection  on  those  who 
suffer  it  to  be  in  its  abandoned  condition." 

During  the  eighteenth  century,  a  tendency  to  establish 
themselves  in  the  western  portion  of  the  town  was  dis- 
cernible amongst  the  great  law  lords.  For  instance, 
Lord  Cowper,  who-during  his  tenure  of  the  seals  resided 
in  Powis  House,  during  his  latter  years  occupied  a  man- 
sion in  Great  George  Street,  Westminster — once  a  most 
fashionable  locality,  but  now  a  street  almost  entirely 
given  up  to  civil  engineers,  who  have  offices  there,  but 
usually  live  elsewhere.  In  like  manner,  Lord  Harcourt, 
moving  westwards  from  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields,  established 
himself  in  Cavendish  Square.  Lord  Henley,  on  retiring 
from  the  family  mansion  in  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields,  settled 
in  Grosvenor  Square.  Lord  Camden  lived  in  Hill  Street, 
Berkeley  Square.  On  being  entrusted  with  the  isole 
custody  of  the  seals,  Lord  Apsley  (better  known  as  Lord 
Chancellor  Bathurst)  made  his  first  state-progress  to 
Westminster  Hall  from  his  house  in  Dean  Street,  Soho; 
but  afterwards  moving  farther  west,  he  built  Apsley 
House  (familiar  to  every  Englishman  as  the  late  Duke  of 
Wellington's  town  mansion)  upon  the  site  of  Squire 
Western's  favorite  inn — the  'Hercules'  Pillars.' 


36  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE   OLD   LAW    QUARTER. 

FIFTEEN  years  since  the  writer  of  this  page  used  to 
dine  with  a  conveyancer — a  lawyer  of  an  old  and 
almost  obsolete  school — who  had  a  numerous  household, 
and  kept  a  hospitable  table  in  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields;  but 
the  conveyancer  was  almost  the  last  of  his  species.  The 
householding  legal  resident  of  the  Fields,  like  the 
domestic  resident  of  the  Temple,  has  become  a  feature 
of  the  past.  Among  the  ordinary  nocturnal  popula- 
tion of  the  square  called  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields,  may  be 
found  a  few  solicitors  who  sleep  by  night  where  they 
work  by  day,  and  a  sprinkling  of  young  barristers  and 
law  students  who  have  residential  chambers  in  grand 
houses  that  less  than  a  century  since  were  tenanted  by 
members  of  a  proud  and  splendid  aristocracy;  but  the 
gentle  families  have  by  this  time  altogether  disappeared 
from  the  mansions. 

But  long  before  this  aristocratic  secession,  the  lawyers 
took  possession  of  a  new  quarter.  The  great  charm  of 
Lincoln's  Inn  Fields  had  been  the  freshness  of  the  air 
which  played  over  the  open  space.  So  also  the  recom- 
mendation of  Great  Queen  Street  had  been  the  purity  of 
its  rural  atmosphere.  Built  between  1630  and  1730, 
that  thoroughfare — at  present  hemmed  in  by  fetid 
courts  and  narrow  passages — caught  the  keen  breezes  of 
Hampstead,  and  long  maintained  a  character  for  salubrity 
as  well  as  fashion.  Of  those  fine  squares  and  imposing 
streets  which  he  between  High  Holborn  and  Hampstead, 
not  a  stone  had  been  laid  when  the  ground  covered  by 
the  present  Freemason's  Tavern  was  one  of  the  most 
desirable  sites  of  the  metropolis.  Indeed,  the  housos 
between    Holborn  and  Great  Queen   Street  were  not 


Houses  and  Householders.  *37 

erected  till  the  mansions  on  the  south  side  of  the  latter 
thoroughfare — built  long  before  the  northern  side — had 
for  years  commanded  an  unbroken  view  of  Holbom  Fields. 
Notwithstanding  many  gloomy  predictions  of  the  evils 
that  would  necessarily  follow  from  over-building,  London 
steadily  increased,,  and  enterprising  architects  deprived 
Lincoln's  Trm  Fields  and  Great  Queen  Street  of  their  rural 
qualities.  Crossing  Holborn,  the  lawyers  settled  on  a 
virgin  plain  beyond  the  ugly  houses  which  had  sprung 
up  on  the  north  of  Great  Queen  Street,  and  on  the 
country  side  of  Holborn.  Speedily  a  new  quarter 
arose,  extending  from  Gray's  Inn  On  the  east  to  South- 
ampton Row  on  the  "West,  and  lying  between  Holborn 
and  the  line  of  Ormond  Street,  Red  Lion  Street, 
Bedford  Row,  Great  Ormond  -Street,  Little  Ormond 
Street,  Great  James  Street,  and  Little  James  Street 
were  amongst  its  best  thoroughfares;  in  its  centre  was 
Red  Lion  Square,  and  in  its  northwestern  corner  lay 
Queen's  Square.  Steadily  enlarging  its  boundaries,  it 
comprised  at  later  dates  Guildford  Street,  John's  Street, 
Doughty  Street,  Mecldenburgh  Square,  Brunswick  Square, 
Bloomsbury  Square,  Russell  Square,  Bedford  Square — 
indeed,  all  the  region  lying  between  Gray's  Inn  Lane 
(on  the  east),  Tottenham  Court  Road  (on  the  west), 
Holborn  (on  the  south),  and  a  line  running  along  the 
north  of  the  Foundling  Hospital  and  '  the  squares.'  Of 
course  this  large  residential  district  was  more  than  the 
lawyers  required  for  themselves.  It  became  and  long 
remained  a  favorite  quarter  with  merchants,  physicians,* 


*  Dr.  Clench  lived  in  Brownlow  Street,  Holborn;  and  until  his  death,  in  1831, 
"John  Abernethy  occupied  in  Bedford  Row  the  house  which  is  still  inhabited  by  an 
eminent  surgeon,  who  was  Abernethy's  favorite  pupil.  Of  Dr.  Clench's  death  in 
January,  1691-2,  Narcissus  Luttrell  gives  the  following  account:  "  The  5th,  la^t 
night.  Dr.  Clench,  the  physician,  was  strangled  in  a  coach;  two  persons  came  to 
his  house  in  Brownlow  Street/Holborn,  in  a  coach,  and  pretended  to  carry  him  to 
a  patient's  in  the  City ;  they  drovo  backward  and  forward,  and  after  some  time 


38  A  Book  aboui  Lawyers. 

and  surgeons;  and  until  a  recent  date  it  comprised  the 
mansions  of  many  leading  members  of  the  aristocracy. 
But  from  its  first  commencement  it  was  so  intimately 
associated  with  the  legal  profession  that  it  was  often 
called  the  'law  quarter;'  and  the  writer  of  this  page  has 
often  heard  elderly  ladies  and  gentlemen  speak  of  it  as 
the  '  old  law  quarter.' 

Although  lawyers  were  the  earliest  householders  in 
this  new  quarter,  its  chief  architect  encountered  at  first 
strong  opposition  from  a  section  of  the  legal  profession. 
Anxious  to  preserve  the  rural  character  of  their  neigh- 
borhood, the  gentlemen  of  Gray's  Inn  were  greatly 
displeased  with  the  proposal  to  lay  out  Holborn  Fields 
in  streets  and  squares.  Under  date  June  10,  1684, 
Narcissus  Luttrell  wrote  in  his  diary — "Dr.  Barebone, 
the  great  builder,  having  some  time  since  bought  the 
Red  Lyon  Fields,  near  Graie's  Inn  walks,  to  build  on, 
and  having  for  that  purpose  employed  severall  workmen 
to  goe  on  with  the  same,  the  gentlemen  of  Graie's  Inn 
took  notice  of  it,  and,  thinking  it  an  injury  to  them, 
went  with  a  considerable  body  of  100  persons;  upon 
which  the  workmen  assaulted  the  gentlemen,  and  flung 
bricks  at  them,  and  the  gentlemen  at  them  again.  So 
a  sharp  engagement  ensued,  but  the  gentlemen  routed 
them  at  last,  and  brought  away  one  or  two  of  the  work- 
men to  Graie's  Inn;  in  this  skirmish  one  or  two  of  the 
gentlemen  and  servants  of  the  house  were  hurt,  and  sev- 
erall of  the  workmen." 

James  Ralph's  remarks  on  the  principal  localities  of 


stopt  by  Leadenhall,  and  sent  the  coachman  to  buy  a  couple  of  fowls  for  supjier, 
who  went  accordingly;  and  in  the  meantime  they  slipt  away,  and  the  coachman 
when  he  returned  found  Dr.  Clench  with  a  handkerchief  tvvd  about  his  neck,  with  a 
hard  sea-coal  twisted  In  It,  and  clapt  against  his  windpipe;  he  had  spirits  applied 
to  him  and  other  means,  but  too  late,  he  having  been  dead  some  time"  I)r. 
Clench's  murderer,  one  Mr.  Harrison,  a  man  of  gentle  condition,  was  apprehended, 
tried,  found  guilty,  and  hung  in  chains. 


Houses  and  Householders.  39 

this  district  are  interesting.  "Bedford  Row,"  he  says, 
"is  one  of  the  most  noble  streets  that  London  has  to 
boast  of,  and  yet  there  is  not  one  house  in  it  which 
deserves  the  least  attention."  He  tells  us  that  "  Ormond 
Street  is  another  place  of  pleasure,  and  that  side  of  it 
next  the  Fields  is,  beyond  question,  one  of  the  most 
charming  situations  about  town."  This  'place  of 
pleasure '  is  now  given  up  for  the  most  part  to  hospitals 
and  other  charitable  institutions,  and  to  lodging-houses 
of  an  inferior  sort.  Passing  on  to  Bloomsbury  Square, 
and  speaking  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford's  residence,  which 
stood  on  the  North  side  of  the  square,  he  says,  "  Then 
behind  it  has  the  advantage  of  most  agreeable  gardens, 
and  a  view  of  the  country,  which  would  make  a  retreat 
from  the  town  almost  unnecessary,  besides  the  oppor- 
tunity of  exhibiting  another  prospect  of  the  building, 
which  would  enrich  the  landscape  and  challenge  new 
approbation."  This  was  written  in  1736.  At  that  time 
the  years  of  two  generations  were  appointed  to  pass  away 
ere  the  removal  of  Bedford  House  should  make  way  for 
Lower  Bedford  Place,  leading  into  Russell  Square. 

So  late  as  the  opening  years  of  George  IH.'s  reign, 
Queen's  Square  enjoyed  an  unbroken  prospect  in  the 
direction  of  Highgate  and  Hampstead.  '  The  Foreigner's 
Guide:  or  a  Necessary  and  Instructive  Companion  both 
to  the  Foreigner  and  Native,  in  their  Tours  through  the 
Cities  of  London  and  Westminster'  (1763),  contains  the 
following  passage: — "Queen's  Square,  which  is  plea- 
santly situated  at  the  extreme  part  of  the  town,  has- a 
fine  open  view  of  the  country,  and  is  handsomely  built, 
as  are  likewise  the  neighboring  streets — viz.,  South- 
ampton Row,  Ormond  Street,  &c.  In  this  last  is  Powis 
House,  so  named  from  the  Marquis  of  Powis,  who  built 
the  present  stately  structure  in  the  year  1713.  It  is 
now  the  town  residence  of  the  Earl  of  Hardwicke,  late 


40  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

Lord  Chancellor.  The  apartments  are  noble,  and  the 
whole  edifice  is  commendable  for  its  situation,  and  the 
fine  prospect  of  the  country.  Not  far  from  thence  is 
Bloomsbury  Square.  This  square  is  commendable  for 
its  situation  and  largeness.  On  the  North  side  is  the 
house  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford.  This  building  was 
erected  from  a  design  of  Inigo  Jones,  and  is  very  elegant 
and  spacious."  From  the  duke's  house  in  Bloomsbury 
Square  and  his  surrounding  property,  the  political  party, 
of  which  he  was  the  Chief,  obtained  the  nickname  of  the 
Bloomsbury  Gang. 

Chief-Justice  Holt  died  March  5,  1710,  at  his  house* 
in  Bedford  Row.     In  Red  Lion   Square   Chief  Justice 
Raymond  had  the  town  mansion   wherein  he  died  on 
April  15,  1733;  twelve  years  after  Sir  John  Pratt,  Lord 
Camden's  father,  died  at  his  house  in  Ormond  Street. 
On  December  15,  1761,  Chief  Justice  Willes  died  at  his 
house  in  Bloomsbury  Square.     Chagrin  at  missing  the 
seals  through  his  own  arrogance,  when  they  had  been 
actually  offered  to  him,  was  supposed  to  be  a  principal 
cause  of  the  Chief  Justice's  death.     His  friends  repre- 
sented that  he  died  of  a  broken  heart;  to  which  assertion 
flippant  enemies  responded  that  no  man  ever  had  a  heart 
after  living  seventy-four  years.     Murray  for  many  years 
inhabited  a  handsome  house  in  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields;  but 
his  name  is  more  generally  associated  with  Bloomsbury 
Square,  where  stood  the  house  which  was  sacked  and 
burnt  by  the   Gordon  ♦  rioters.     In  Bloomsbury  Square 
our  grandfathers  used  to  lounge,  watching  the  house  of 
Edward  Law,  subsequently  Lord  Ellenborough,  in  the 
hope  of  seeing  Mrs.  Law,  as  she  watered  the  flowers  of 


*  Holt's  country  seat  was  Redgrave  Hall,  formerly  the  home  of  the  Bacons.  It 
was  on  his  manor  of  Redgrave,  that  Sir  Nicholas  Bacon  entertained  Queen  Eliza- 
beth, when  she  remarked  that  her  Lord  Keeper's  house  was  too  small  for  him,  and 
be  answered—"  Your  Majesty  has  made  me  too  great  for  my  house." 


Houses  and  Householders.  41 

her  balcony.  Mrs.  Law's  maiden  name  was  Towry,  and, 
as  a  beauty,  she  remained  for  years  the  rage  of  London. 
Even  at  this  date  there  remain  a  few  aged  gentlemen 
whose  eyes  sparkle  and  whose  cheeks  flush  when  they 
recall  the  charms  of  the  lovely*  creature  who  became  the 
wife  of  ungainly  Edward  Law,  after  refusing  him  on  three 
separate  occasions. 

On  becoming  Lord  Ellenborough  and  Chief  Justice, 
Edward  Law  moved  to  a  great  mansion  in  St.  James's 
Square,  the  size  of  which  he  described  to  a  friend  by 
saying:  "  Sir,  if  you  let  off  a  piece  of  ordnance  in  the 
hall,  the  report  is  not  heard  in  the  bedrooms."  In  this 
house  the  Chief  Justice  expired,  on  December  13,  1818. 
Speaking  of  Lord  Ellenborough's  residence  in  St.  James's 
Square,  Lord  Campbell  says:  "This  was  the  first  instance 
of  a  common  law  judge  moving  to  the  'West  End.' 
Hitherto  all  the  common  law  judges  had  lived  within  a 
radius  of  half  a  mile  from  Lincoln's  Inn;  but  they  are 
now  spread  over  the  Regent's  Park,  Hyde  Park  Gardens, 
and  Kensington  Gore." . 

Lord  Harwicke  and  Lord  Thurlow  have  been  more 
than  once  mentioned  as  inhabitants  of  Ormond  Street. 

Eldon's  residences  may  be  noticed  with  advantage  in 
this  place.  On  leaving  Oxford  and  settling  in  London, 
he  took  a  small  house  for  himself  and  Mrs.  Scott  in 
Cursitor  Street,  Chancery  Lane.  About  this  dwelling  he 
wrote  to  his  brother  Henry: — "I  have  got  a  house 
barely  sufficient  to  hold  my  small  family,  which  (so  great 
is  the  demand  for  them  here)  will,  in  rent  and  taxes,  cost 
"me  annually  six  pounds."  To  this  house  he  used  to  point 
in  the  days  of  his  prosperity,  and,  in  allusion  to  the 
poverty  which  he  never  experienced,  he  would  add, 
"  There  was  my  first  perch.  Many  a  time  have  I  run 
down  from  Cursitor  Street  to  Fleet  Market  and  bought 
fiixpenn'orth  of  sprats  for   our   supper."    After  leaving 


42  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

Cursitor  Street,  lie  lived  in  Carey  Street,  Lincoln's  Inn 
Fields,  where  also,  in  his  later  years,  he  believed  himself 
to  have  endured  such  want  of  money  that  he  and  Lis 
wife  were  glad  to  nil  themselves  with  sprats.  "When  he 
fixed  this  anecdote  upon  Carey  Street,  the  old  Chancellor 
used  to  represent  himself  as  buying  the  sprats  in  Clare 
Market  instead  of  Fleet  Market.  After  some  successful 
years  he  moved  his  household  from  the  vicinity  of  Lin- 
coln's Inn,  and  took  a  house  in  the  law  quarter,  selecting 
one  of  the  roomy  houses  (No.  42)  of  Gower  Street,  where 
he  lived  when  as  Attorney  General  he  conducted  the 
futile  prosecutions  of  Hardy,  Home  Tooke,  and  Thelwall, 
in  1794. 

On  quitting  Gower  Street,  Eldon  took  the  house  in 
Bedford  Square,  which  witnessed  so  many  strange  scenes 
during  his  tenure  of  the  seals,  and  also  during  his  brief 
exclusion  from  office.     In  Bedford  Square  he  played  the 
part  of  chivajric  protector  to  the  Princess  of  Wales,  and 
chuckled  over  the  proof-sheets  of  that  mysterious  '  book' 
by  the  publication  of  which  the  injured  wife  and  the 
lawyer  hoped  to  take  vengeance  on  their  common  enemy. 
There  the  Chancellor,  feeling  it  well  to  protract  his  flir- 
tation with  the  Princess  of  Wales,  entertained  her  in  the 
June  of  1808,  with  a  grand  banquet,  from  which  Lady 
Eldon  was  compelled  by  indisposition  to  be  absent.    And 
there,  four  years  later,  when  he  was  satisfied  that  her 
Royal  Highness's  good  opinion  could  be  of  no  service  to 
him,  the  crafty,  self-seeking  minister  gave  a  still  more 
splendid  dinner  to  the  husband  whose  vices  he  had  pro- 
fessed to  abhor,  whose  meanness  of  spirit  he  had  declared 
the  object  of  his  contempt.     "  However,"  writes  Lord 
Campbell,   with   much   satiric    humor,    describing  this 
alliance  between  the  selfish  voluptuary  and  the  equally 
selfish  lawyer,  "he  was  much  comforted  by  having  the 
honor,   at  the  prorogation,   of   entertaining  at  dinner 


Houses  and  Householders.  43 

his  Royal  Highness  the  Regent,  with  whom  he  was  now 
a  special  favorite,  and  who,  enjoying  the  splendid  hospi- 
tality of  Bedford  Square,  forgot  that  the  Princess  of 
Wales  had  sat  in  the  same  room;  at  the  same  table;  on 
the  same  chair;  had  drunk  of  the  same  wine;  out  of  the 
same  cup;  while  the  conversation  had  turned  on  her  bar- 
barous usage,  and  the  best  means  of  publishing  to  the 
world  her  wrongs  and  his  misconduct." 

Another  of  the  Prince  Regent's  visits  to  Bedford  Square 
is  surrounded  with  comic  circumstances  and  associations. 
In  the  April  of  1815,  a  mastership  of  chancery  became 
vacant  by  the  death  of  Mr.  Morris;  and  forthwith  the 
Chancellor  was  assailed  with  entreaties  from  every  direc- 
tion for  the  vacant  post.  For  two  months  Eldon,  pur- 
suing that  policy  of  which  he  was  a  consummate  master, 
delayed  to  appoint;  but  on  June  23,  he  disgusted  the 
bar  and  shocked  the  more  intelligent  section  of  London 
society,  by  conferring  the  post  on  Jekyll,  the  courtly  bon 
vivant  and  witty  descendant  of  Sir  Joseph  Jekyll,  Master 
of  the  Rolls.  Amiable,  popular,  and  brilliant,  Jekyll  re- 
ceived the  congratulations  of  his  numerous  personal 
friends;  but  beyond  the  circle  of  his  private  acquaint- 
ance the  appointment  created  lively  dissatisfaction — dis- 
satisfaction which  was  heightened  rather  than  diminished 
by  the  knowledge  that  the  placeman's  good  fortune  was 
entirely  due  to  the  personal  importunity  of  the  Prince 
Regent,  who  called  at  the  Chancellor's  house,  and  having 
forced  his  way  into  the  bedroom,  to  which  Eldon  was 
confined  by  an  attack  of  gout,  refused  to  take  his  de- 
parture without  a  promise  that  his  friend  should  have  tho 
vacant  place.  How  this  royal  influence  was  applied  to 
the  Chancellor,  is  told  in  the  '  Anecdote  Book.' 

Fortunately  Jekyll  was  less  incompetent  for  the  post 
than  his  enemies  had  declared,  and  his  friends  admitted. 
He  proved  a  respectable  master,  and  held  his  post  until 


44  A  Booh  about  Lawyers 

age  and  sickness  compelled  him  to  resign  it;  and  then, 
sustained  in  spirits  by  the  usual  retiring  pension,  he 
sauntered  on  right  mirthfully  into  the  valley  of  the  shadow 
of  death.  On  the  day  after  his  retirement,  the  jocose 
veteran,  meeting  Eldon  in  the  street,  observed: — "Yes- 
terday, Lord  Chancellor,  I  was  your  master;  to-day  I  am 
my  own." 

From  Bedford  Square,  Lord  Eldon,  for  once  following 
the  fashion,  moved  to  Hamilton  Place,  Piccadilly.  With 
the  purpose  of  annoying  him  the  '  Queen's  friends/ 
during  the  height  of  the  'Queen  Caroline  agitation,' 
proposed  to  buy  the  house  adjoining  the  Chancellor's 
residence  in  Hamilton  Place,  and  to  fit  it  up  for  the  habita- 
tion of  that  not  altogether  meritorious  lady.  Such  an 
arrangement  would  have  been  an  humiliating  as  well  as 
exasperating  insult  to  a  lawyer  who,  as  long  as  the  excite- 
ment about  the  poor  woman  lasted,  would  have  been  liable 
to  affront  whenever  he  left  his  house  or  looked  through 
the  windows  facing  Hamilton  Place.  The  same  mob  that 
delighted  in  hallooing  round  whatever  house  the  Queen 
honored  with  her  presence,  would  have  varied  their 
'  hurrahs '  for  the  lady  with  groans  for  the  lawyer  who, 
after  making  her  wrongs  the  stalking-horse  of  his  ambi- 
tion, had  become  one  of  her  chief  oppressors.  Eldon 
determined  to  leave  Hamilton  Place  on  the  day  which 
should  see  the  Queen  enter  it;  and  hearing  that  the 
Lords  of  the  Treasury  were  about  to  assist  her  with 
money  for  the  purchase  of  the  house,  he  wrote  to  Lord 
Liverpool,  protesting  against  an  arrangement  which  would 
subject  him  to  annoyance  at  home  and  to  ridicule  out  of 
doors.  "I  should,"  he  wrote,  "be  very  unwilling  to 
state  anything  offensively,  but  I  cannot  but  express  my 
confidence  that  Government  will  not  aid  a  project  which 
must  remove  the  Chancellor  from  his  house  the  next  hour 
that  it  takes  effect,  and  from  his  office  at  the  same  time." 


Houses  and  Householders.  45 

This  decided  attitude  caused  the  Government  to  withdraw 
their  countenance  from  the  project;  whereupon  a  public 
subscription  was  opened  for  its  accomplishment.  Suffi- 
cient funds  were  immediately  proffered;  and  the  owner 
of  the  .mansion  had  verbally  made  terms  with  the  patriots, 
when  the  Chancellor,  outbidding  them,  bought  the  house  * 
himself.  "I  had  no  other  means,"  he  wrote  to  his 
daughter,  "  of  preventing  the  destruction  of  my  present 
house  as  a  place  in  which  I  could  live,  or  which  anybody 
else  would  take.  The  purchase-money  is  large,  but  I  have 
already  had  such  offers,  that  I  shall  not,  I  think,  lose  by 
it." 

Russell  Square — where  Lord  Loughborough  (who 
knows  aught  of  the  Earl  of  Rosslyn  ?)  had  his  town 
house,  after  leaving  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields,  and  where 
Charles  Abbott  (Lord  Tehterden)  established  himself  on 
leaving  the  house  in  Queen  Square,  into  which  he  married 
during  the  summer  of  1795 — maintained  a  quasi-fashion- 
able repute  much  later  than  the  older  and  therefore  more 
interesting  parts  of  the  'old  law  quarter.'  Theodore 
Hook's  disdain  for  Bloomsbury  is  not  rightly  appreciated 
by  those  who  fail  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  Russell  Square 
of  Hook's  time  was  tenanted  by  people  who — though 
they  were  unknown  to  'fashion,'  in  the  sense  given  to 
the  word  by  men  of  Brummel's  habit  and  tone — had  un- 
deniable status  amongst  the  aristocracy  and  gentry  of 
England.  With  some  justice  the  witty  writer  has  been 
charged  with  snobbish  vulgarity  because  he  ridiculed 
humble  Bloomsbury  for  being  humble.  His  best  defence 
is  found  in  the  fact  that  his  extravagant  scorn  was  not 
directed  at  helpless  and  altogether  obscure  persons  so 
much  as  at  an  educated  and  well-born  class  who  laughed 
at  his  caricatures,  and  gave  dinners  at  which  he  was  proud 
to  be  present.  Though  it  fails  to  clear  the  novelist  of 
the  special  charge,  this  apology  has  a  certain  amount  of 


46  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

truth;  and  in  so  far  as  it  palliates  some  of  his  offences 
against  good  taste  and  gentle  feeling,  by  all  means  let 
him  have  the  full  benefit  of  it  Criticism  can  afford  to 
be  charitable  to  the  clever,  worthless  man,  now  that  no 
one  admires  or  tries  to  respect  him.  Again,  it  may  be 
advanced,  in  Hook's  behalf,  that  political  animosity — a 
less  despicable,  though  not  less  hurtful  passion  than  love 
of  gentility — contributed  to  Hook's  dislike  of  the  quarter 
on  the  north  side  of  Holborn.  As  a  humorist  he  ridi- 
culed, as  a  panderer  to  fashionable  prejudices  he  sneered 
at,  Bloomsbury;  but  as  a  tory  he  cherished  a  genuine 
antagonism  to  the  district  of  town  that  was  associated 
in  the  public  mind  with  the  wealth  and  ascendency  of  the 
house  of  Bedford.  Anyhow,  the  Russell  Square  neigh- 
borhood— although  it  was  no  longer  fashionable,  as 
Belgravia  and  Mayfair  are  fashionable  at  the  present  day 
— remained  the  locality  of  many  important  families,  at 
the  time  when  Mr.  Theodore  Hook  was  pleased  to  assume 
that  no  one  above  the  condition  of  a  rich  tradesman  or 
second-rate  attorney  lived  in  it.  Of  the  lawyers  whose 
names  are  mournfully  associated  with  the  square  itself 
are  Sir  Samuel  Romilly  and  Sir  Thomas  Noon  Talfourd. 
In  1818,  the  year  of  his  destruction  by  his  own  hand,  Sir 
Samuel  Romilly  lived  there ;  and  Talfourd  had  a  house 
on  the  east  side  of  the  square  up  to  the  time  of  his 
lamented  death  in  1854. 

That  Theodore  Hook's  ridicule  of  Bloomsbury  greatly 
lessened  for  a  time  the  value  of  its  houses  there  is  abun- 
dant evidence.  When  he  deluged  the  district  with 
scornful  satire,  his  voice  was  a  social  power,  to  which  a 
considerable  number  of  honest  people  paid  servile  respect. 
His  clever  words  were  repeated;  and  Bloomsbury  having 
become  a  popular  by-word  for  contempt,  aristocratic 
families  ceased  to  live,  and  were  reluctant  to  invest 
money,  in  its  well-built  mansions.     But  Hook  only  ac- 


Houses  and  Householders.  47 

celerated  a  movement  which  had  for  years  been  steadily 
though  silently  making  progress.  Erskine  knew  Red 
Lion  Square  when  every  house  was  occupied  by  a  lawyer 
of  wealth  and  eminence,  if  not  of  titular  rank;  but  before 
he  quitted  the  stage,  barristers  had  relinquished  the 
ground  in  favor  of  opulent  shopkeepers.  When  an 
ironmonger  became  the  occupant  of  a  house  in  Red  Lion 
Square  on  the  removal  of  a  distinguished  counsel, 
Erskine  wrote  the  epigram — 

"  This  house,  where  once  a  lawyer  dwelt, 
Is  now  a  smith's, — alas ! 
How  rapidly  the  iron  age 
Succeeds  the  age  of  brass." 

These  lines  point  to  a  minor  change  in  the  social  arrange- 
ments of  London,  which  began  with  the  century,  and  was 
still  in  progress  when  Erskine  had  for  years  been  moul- 
dering in  his  grave.  In  1823,  the  year  of  Erskine's 
death,  Chief  Baron  Richards  expired  in  his  town- house, 
in  Great  Ormond  Street.  In  the  July  of  the  following 
year  Baron  Wood — i.  e.,  George  Wood,  the  famous  special 
pleader — died  at  his  house  in  Bedford  Square,  about 
seventeen  months  after  his  resignation  of  his  seat  in  the 
Court  of  Exchequer  to  John  Hullock. 

At  the  present  time  the  legal  fraternity  has  deserted 
Bloomsbury.  The  last  of  the  Judges  to  depart  was  Chief 
Baron  Pollock,  who  sold  his  great  house  in  Queen  Square 
at  a  quite  recent  date.  With  the  disappearance  of  this 
venerable  and  universally  respected  judge,  the  legal 
history  of  the  neighborhood  may  be  said  to  have  closed. 
Some  wealthy  solicitors  still  live  in  Russell  Square  and 
the  adjoining  streets;  a  few  old-fashioned  barristers  still 
linger  in  Upper  Bedford  Place  and  Lower  Bedford  Place. 
Gnilford  Street  and  Doughty  Street,  and  the  adjacent 
thoroughfares  of  the  same  class,  still  number  a  sprinkling 
of  rising  juniors,  literary  barristers,  and  fairly  prosperous 


48  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

attorneys.  Perhaps  the  ancient  aroma  of  the  '  old  law 
quarter' — Mesopotamia,  as  it  is  now  disrespectfully 
termed — is  still  strong  and  pleasant  enough  to  attract  a 
few  lawyers  who  cherish  a  sentimental  fondness  for  the 
past.  A  survey  of  the  Post  Office  Directory  creates  an 
impression  that,  compared  with  other  neighborhoods, 
the  district  north  and  northeast  of  Bloomsbury  Square 
still  possesses  more  than  an  average  number  of  legal  res- 
idents; but  it  no  longer  remains  the  quarter  of  the 
lawyers. 

There  still  resides  in  Mecklenburgh  Square  a  learned 
Queen's  Counsel,  for  whose  preservation  the  prayers  of 
the  neighborhood  constantly  ascend.  To  his  more 
scholarly  and  polite  neighbors  this  gentleman  is  an 
object  of  intellectual  interest  and  anxious  affection.  As 
the  last  of  an  extinct  species,  as  a  still  animate  Dodo,  as 
a  lordly  Mohican  who  has  outlived  his  tribe,  this  isolated 
counselor  of  her  Gracious  Majesty  is  watched  by  heed- 
ful eyes  whenever  he  crosses  his  threshold.  In  the 
morning,  as  he  paces  from  his  dwelling  to  chambers,  his 
way  down  Doughty  Street  and  John  Street,  and  through 
Gray's  Inn  Gardens,  is  guarded  by  men  anxious  for  his 
safety.  Shreds  of  orange-peel  are  whisked  from  the 
pavement  on  which  he  is  about  to  tread;  and  when  he 
crosses  Holborn  he  walks  between  those  who  would  im- 
peril their  lives  to  rescue  him  from  danger.  The  gate- 
keeper in  Doughty  Street  daily  makes  him  low  obeisance, 
knowing  the  historic  value  and  interest  of  his  courtly 
presence.  Occasionally  the  inhabitants  of  Mecklenburgh 
Square  whisper  a  fear  that  some  sad  morning  their  Q.  C. 
may  flit  away  without  giving  them  a  warning.  Long 
may  it  be  before  the  residents  of  the  '  Old  Law  Quarter ' 
shall  wail  over  the  fulfillment  of  this  dismal  anticipation ! 


PAET  n. 
LOVES  OF  THE  LAWYERS. 


CHAPTER     VI. 

A    LOTTEET. 


"T  "WOULD  compare  the  multitude  of  women  which 
X  are  to  be  chosen  for  wives  unto  a  bag  full  of 
snakes,  having  among  them  a  single  eel;  now  if  a  man 
should  put  his  hand  into  this  bag,  he  may  chance  to  light 
on  the  eel;  but  it  is  an  hundred  to  one  he  shall  be  stung 
by  a  snake." 

These  words  were  often  heard  from  the  lips  of  that 
honest  judge,  Sir  John  More,  whose  son  Thomas  stirred 
from  brain  to  foot  by  the  bright  eyes,  and  snowy  neck, 
and  flowing  locks  of  cara  Elizabetha  (the  cara  Elizabetha 
of  a  more  recent  Tom  More  was  'Bessie,  my  darling') 
— penned  those  warm  and  sweetly-flowing  verses  which 
delight  scholars  of  the  present  generation,  and  of  which 
the  following  lines  are  neither  the  least  musical  nor  the 
least  characteristic: — 

"  Jam  subit  ilia  dies  quae  ludentem  obtulit  olim 

Inter  virgineos  te  mihi  prima  chofos. 
Lactea  cum  flavi  decuerunt  colla  capilli, 

Cum  genapar  nivibus  visa,  labella  rosis: 
Cum  tua  perstringunt  oculos  duo  sydera  nostras 

Perque  oculos  intrant  in  mea  corda  meos." 

3 


50  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

The  goddess  of  love  played  the  poet  more  than  one 
droll  trick.  '  Having  approached  her  with  musical  flat- 
tery, he  fled  from  her  with  fear  and  abhorrence.  For  a 
time  the  highest  and  holiest  of  human  affections  "was  to 
his  darkened  mind  no  more  than  a  carnal  appetite;  and 
he  strove  to  conquer  the  emotions  which  he  feared  would 
rouse  within  him  a  riot  of  impious  passions.  "With  fast- 
ing and  cruel  discipline  he  would  fain  have  killed  the 
devil  that  agitated  him,  whenever  he  passed  a  pretty  girl 
in  the  street.  As  a  lay  Carthusian  he  wore  a  hair-shirt 
next  his  skin,  disciplined  his  bare  back  with  scourges, 
slept  on  the  cold  ground  or.  a  hard  bench,  and  by  a  score 
other  strong  measures  sought  to  preserve  his  spiritual  by 
ruining  his  bodily  health.  But  nature  was  too  powerful 
for  unwholesome  doctrine  and  usage,  and  before  he  rashly 
took  a  celibatic  vow,  he  knelt  to  fair  Jane  Colt — and 
rising,  kissed  her  on  the  lips. 

When  spiritual  counsel  had  removed  his  conscientious 
objections  to  matrimony,  he  could  not  condescend  to 
marry  for  love,  but  must,  forsooth,  choose  his  wife  in 
obedience  to  considerations  of  compassion  and  mercy. 
Loving  her  younger  sister,  he  paid  his  addresses  to  Jane, 
because  he  shrunk  from  the  injustice  of  putting  the  junior 
above  the  elder  of  the  two  girls.  "  Sir  Thomas  having 
determined,  by  the  advice  and  direction  of  his  ghostly 
father,  to  be  a  married  man,  there  was  at  that  time  a 
pleasant  conceited  gentleman  of  an  ancient  family  in 
Essex,  one  Mr.  John  Colt,  of  New  Hall,  that  invited  him 
into  his  house,  being  much  delighted  in  his  company, 
proffering  unto  him  the  choice  of  any  of  his  daughters, 
who  were  young  gentlewomen  of  very  good  carriage,  good 
complexions,  and  very  religiously  inclined  ;  whose  honest 
and  sweet  conversation  and  virtuous  education  enticed 
Sir  Thomas  not  a  little  ;  and  although  his  affection  most 
served  him  to  the  second,  for  that  he  thought  her  the 


Loves  of  the  Lawyers.  51 

fairest  and  best  favored,  yet  when  lie  thought  within 
himself  that  it  would  be  a  grief  and  some  blemish  to  the 
eldest  to  have  the  younger  sister  preferred  before  her,  he, 
out  of  a  kind  of  compassion,  settled  his  fancy  upon  the 
eldest,  and  soon  after  married  her  with  all  his  friends' 
good  liking." 

The  marriage  was  a  fair  happy  union,  but  its  dura- 
tion was  short.  After  giving  birth  to  four  children  Jane 
died,  leaving  the  young  husband,  who  had  instructed  her 
sedulously,  to  mourn  her  sincerely.  That  his  sorrow  was 
poignant  may  be  easily  believed  ;  for  her  death  deprived 
him  of  a  docile  pupil,  as  well  as  a  dutiful  wife. 

"  Virginem  duxit  a'dmodum  puellam,"  Erasmus  says  of 
his  friend,  "  claro  genere  natam,  rudem  adhuc  utpote 
ruri  inter  parentes  ac  sorores  semper  habitam,  quo  magis 
illi  liceret  illam  ad  suos  mores  fingere.  Hanc  et  Uteris 
instruendam  curavit,  et  omni  musices  genere  doctam 
reddidit."  Here  is  another  insight  into  the  considera- 
tions which  brought  about  the  marriage.  When  he  set 
out  in  search  of  a  wife,  he  wished  to  capture  a  simple, 
unsophisticated,  untaught  country  girl,  whose  ignorance 
of  the  world  should  incline  her  to  rely  on  his  superior 
knowledge,  and  the  deficiencies  of  whose  intellectual 
training  should  leave  him  an  ample  field  for  educational 
experiments.  Seeking  this  he  naturally  turned  his  steps 
toward  the  eastern  countries  ;  and  in  Essex  he  found  the 
young  lady,  who  to  the  last  learnt  with  intelligence  and 
zeal  the  lessons  which  he  set  her. 

More's  second  choice  of  a  wife  was  less  fortunate  than 
his  first.  Wanting  a  woman  to  take  care  of  his  children 
and  preside  over  his  rather  numerous  establishment,  he 
made  an  offer  to  a  widow,  named  Alice  Middleton. 
Plain  and  homely  in  appearance  and  taste,  Mistress  Alice 
would  have  been  invaluable  to  Sir  Thomas  as  a  superior 
domestic  servant,  but  his .  good  judgment  and  taste  de- 


52  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

serted  him  when  he  decided  to  make  her  a  closer  com- 
panion. Bustling,  keen,  loquacious,  tart,  the  good  dame 
scolded  servants  and  petty  tradesmen  with  admirable 
effect ;  but  even  at  this  distance  of  time  the  sensitive  ear 
is  pained  by  her  sharp,  garrulous  tongue,  when  its  acer- 
bity and  virulence  are  turned  against  her  pacific  and 
scholarly  husband.  A  smile  follows  the  recollection  that 
he  endeavored  to  soften  her  manners  and  elevate  her 
nature  by  a  system  of  culture  similar  to  that  by  which 
Jane  Colt,  '  admodum  puella,'  had  been  formed  and 
raised  into  a  polished  gentlewoman.  Past  forty  years  of 
age,  Mistress  Alice  was  required  to  educate  herself  anew. 
Erasmus  assures  his  readers  that "  though  verging  on  old 
age,  and  not  of  a  yielding  temper,"  she  was  prevailed 
upon  "  to  take  lessons  on  the  lute,  the  cithara,  the  viol, 
the  monochord,  and  the  flute,  which  she  daily  practised 
to  him." 

It  has  been  the  fashion  with  biographers  to  speak 
bitterly  of  this  poor  woman,  and  to  pity  More  for  hia 
cruel  fate  in  being  united  to  a  termagant.  No  one  has 
any  compassion  for  her.  Sir  Thomas  is  the  victim  ; 
Mistress  Alice  the  shrill  virago.  In  these  days,  when 
every  historic  reprobate  finds  an  apologist,  is  there  no  one 
to  say  a  word  in  behalf  of  the  Widow  Middleton,  whose 
lot  in  life  and  death  seems  to  this  writer  very  pitable  ? 
She  was  quick  in  temper,  slow  in  brain,  domineering, 
awkward.  To  rouse  sympathy  for  such  a  woman  is  no 
easy  task  ;  but  if  wretchedness  is  a  title  to  compassion, 
Mistress  Alice  has  a  right  to  charity  and  gentle  usage. 
It  was  not  her  fault  that  she  could  not  sympathize  with 
her  grand  husband,  in  his  studies  and  tastes,  his  lofty  life 
and  voluntary  death  ;  it  was  her  misfortune  that  his  steps 
traversed  plains  high  above  her  own  moral  and  intellec- 
tual level.  By  social  theory  they  were  intimate  com- 
panions ;  in  reality,  no  man  and  woman  in  all  England 


Loves  of  the  Lawyers.  53 

were  wider  apart.  From  his  elevation  he  looked  down 
on  her  with  commiseration  that  was  heightened  by  curi- 
osity and  amazement ;  and  she  daily  writhed  under  his 
gracious  condescension  and  passionless  urbanity  ;  under 
her  own  consciousness  of  inferiority  and  consequent  self- 
scorn.  He  could  no  more  sympathize  with  her  petty 
aims,  than  she  with  the  high  views  and  ambitions  ;  and 
conjugal  sympathy  was  far  more  necessary  to  her  than  to 
him.  His  studious  friends  and  clever  children  afforded 
him  an  abundance  of  human  fellowship  ;  his  public  cares 
and  intellectual  pursuits  gave  him  constant  diversion. 
He  stood  in  such  small  need  of  her,  that  if  some  benevo- 
lent fairy  had  suddenly  endowed  her  with  grace,  wisdom, 
and  understanding,  the  sum  of  his  satisfaction  would  not 
have  been  perceptibly  altered.  But  apart  from  him  she 
had  no  sufficient  enjoyments.  His  genuine  companion- 
ship was  requisite  for  her  happiness  ;  but  for  this  society 
nature  had  endowed  her  with  no  fitness. "  In  the  case  of 
an  unhappy  marriage,  where  the  unhappiness  is  not 
caused  by  actual  misconduct,  but  is  solely  due  to  incon- 
gruity of  tastes  and  capacities,  it  is  cruel  to  assume  that 
the  superior  person  of  the  ill-assorted  couple  has  the 
stronger  claim  to  sympathy. 

Finding  his  wife  less  tractable  than  he  wished,  More 
withheld  his  confidence  from  her,  taking  the  most  impor- 
tant steps  of  his  life,  without  either  asking  for  her  advice, 
or  even  announcing  the  course  which  he  was  about  to 
take.  His  resignation  of  the  seals  was  announced  to  her 
on  the  day  after  his  retirement  from  office,  and  in  a 
manner  which,  notwithstanding  its  drollery,  would  greatly 
pain  any  woman  of  ordinary  sensibility.  The  day  follow- 
ing the  date  of  his  resignation  was  a  holiday  ;  and  in  ac- 
cordance with  his  usage  the  ex-Chancellor,  together  with 
his  household,  attended  service  in  Chelsea  Church.  On 
her  way  to  church,  Lady  More  returned  the  greetings  of 


54  A  Book  about  'Lawyers. 

her  friends  with  a  stateliness  not  unseemly  at  that  cere- 
monious time  in  one  who  was  the  lady  of  the  Lord  High 
Chancellor.  At  the  conclusion  of  service,  ere  she  left 
her  pew,  the  intelligence  was  broken  to  her  in  a  jest  that 
she  had  lost  her  cherished  dignity.  "  And  whereas  upon 
the  holidays  during  his  High  Chancellorship  one  of  his 
gentlemen,  when  the  service  of  the  church  was  done, 
ordinarily  used  to  come  to  my  lady  his  wife's  pew-door, 
and  say  unto  her  'Madam,  my  lord  is  gone,'  he  came 
into  my  lady  his  wife's  pew  himself,  and  making  a  low 
courtesy,  said  unto  her,  '  Madam,  my  lord  is  gone,'  which 
she,  imagining  to  be  but  one  of  his  jests,  as  he  used  many 
unto  her,  he  sadly  affirmed  unto  her  that  it  was  true. 
This  was  the  way  he  thought  fittest  to  break  the  matter 
unto  his  wife,  who  was  full  of  sorrow  to  hear  it." 

Equally  humorous  and  pathetic  was  that  memorable 
interview  between  More  and  his  wife  in  the  Tower,  when 
she,  regarding  his  position  by  the  lights  with  which 
nature  had  endowed  her,  counseled  him  to  yield  even  at 
that  late  moment  to  the  king.  "What  the  goodyear, 
Mr.  More !"  she  cried,  bustling  up  to  the  tranquil  and 
courageous  man.  "I  marvel  that  you,  who  have  been 
hitherto  always  taken  for  a  wise  man,  will  now  so  play 
the  fool  as  to  He  here  in  this  close,  filthy  prison,  and  be 
content  to  bo  shut  up  thus  with  mice  and  rats,  when  you 
might  be  abroad  at  your  liberty,  with  the  favor  and 
good-will  both  of  the  king  and  his  council,  if  you  would 
but  do  as  the  bishops  and  best  learned  of  his  realm  have 
done  ;  and,  seeing  you  have  at  Chelsea  a  right  fair  house, 
■»your  library,  your  books,  your  gallery,  and  all  other 
necessaries  so  handsome  about  you,  where  you  might,  in 
company  with  mo,  your  wife,  your  children,  and  house- 
hold, be  merry,  I  muse  what,  in  God's  name,  you  mean, 
here  thus  fondly  to  tarry."  Having  heard  her  out — 
preserving  his  good-humor,  he  said  to  her,  with  a  cheer- 


Loves  of  the  Lawyers.  55 

ful  countenance,  "  I  pray  thee,  good  Mrs.  Alice,  tell  me 
one  thing!"  'What  is  it?'  saith  she,  'Is  not  this 
house  as  near  heaven  as  my  own  ?' " 

Sir  Thomas  More  was  looking  towards  heaven. 

Mistress  Alice  had  her  eye  upon  the  ■  right  fair  house' 
at  Chelsea. 


CHAPTEE  VIL 

GOOD    QUEEN   BESS. 


AMONGST  the  eminent  men  who  are  frequently  men- 
tioned as  notorious  suitors  for  the  personal  affection 
of  Queen  Elizabeth,  a  conspicuous  place  is  awarded  to 
Hatton,  by  the  scandalous  memoirs  of  his  time  and  the 
romantic  traditions  of  later  ages.  Historians  of  the 
present  generation  have  accepted  without  suspicion  the 
story  that  Hatton  was  Elizabeth's  amorous  courtier,  that 
the  fanciful  letters  of  '  Lydds '  were  fervent  solicitations 
for  response  to  his  passion;  that  he  won  her  favor  and 
his  successive  promotions  by  timely  exhibition  of  personal 
grace  and  steady  perseverance  in  flattery.  Campbell 
speaks  of  the  queen  and  her  chancellor  as  '  lovers  ;'  and 
the  view  of  the  historian  has  been  upheld  by  novelists, 
and  dramatic  writers. 

The  writer  of  this  pag€  ventures  to  reject  a  story  which 
is  not  consistent  with  truth,  and  casts  a  dark  suspicion 
on  her  who  was  not  more  powerful  as  a  queen  than  vir- 
tuous as  a  woman.  v 

For  illustrations  of  lovers'  pranks  amongst  the 
Elizabethan  lawyers,  the  reader  must  pass  to  two  great 
judges,  the  inferior  of  whom  was  a  far  greater  man  than 
Christopher  Hatton.  Rivals  in  law  and  politics,  Bacon 
and  Coke  were  also  rivals  in  love.     Having  wooed  the 


56  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

same  proud,  lovely,  capricious,  violent  woman,  the  one 
•was  blessed  with  failure,  and  the  other  was  cursed  with 
success. 

Until  a  revolution  in  the  popular  estimate  of  Bacon 
was  effected  by  Mr.  Hepworth  Dixon's  vindication  of 
that  great  man,  it  was  generally  believed  that  love  was 
no  appreciable  element  in  his  nature.  Delight  in  vain 
display  occupied  in  his  affections  the  place  which  should 
have  been  held  by  devotion  to  womanly  beauty  and 
goodness  ;  he  had  sneered  at  love  in  an  essay,  and  his 
cold  heart  never  rebelled  against  the  doctrine  of  his 
clever  brain  ;  he  wooed  his  notorious  cousin  for  the  sake 
of  power,  and  then  married  Alice  Barnham  for  money. 
Such  was  the  theory,  the  most  solid  foundation  of  which 
was  a  humorous  treatise,*  misread  and  misapplied. 

The  lady's  wealth,  rank,  and  personal  attractions  were 
in  truth  the  only  facts  countenancing  the  suggestion  that 
Francis  Bacon  proffered  suit  to  his  fair  cousin  from 
interested  motives.  Notwithstanding  her  defects  of 
temper,  no  one  denies  that  she  was  a  woman  qualified 
by  nature  to  rouse  the  passion  of  man.  A  wit  and 
beauty,  she  was  mistress  of  the  arts  which  heighten  the 
powers  of  feminine  tact  and  loveliness.  The  daughter 
of  Sir  Thomas  Cecil,  the  grandchild  of  Lord  Bui'leigh, 

*  To  readers  who  have  no  sense  of  humor  and  irony,  the  essay  '  Of  Love  '  un- 
questionably gives  countenance  to  the  theory  that  Francis  Bacon  was  cold  and 
passionless  in  all  that  concerned  woman.  Of  the  many  strange  constructions  put 
upon  this  essay,  not  the  least  amusing  and  perverse  is  that  which  would  make  it  a 
piece  of  adroit  flattery  to  Elizabeth,  who  never  permitted  love  "  to  check  with 
business,"  though  she  is  represented  to  have  used  it  as  a  diversion  in  idle  mo- 
ments. If  Sir  Thomas  More's  '  Utopia  '  had  been  published  a  quarter  of  a  century 
after  1518  (the  date  of  its  appearance),  a  similar  construction  would  have  been  put 
on  the  passage,  which  urges  that  lovers  should  not  be  bound  by  an  indissoluble  tie 
of  wedlock,  until  mutual  inspection  has  satisfied  each  of  the  contracting  parties 
that  the  other  does  not  labor  under  any  grave  personal  defect.  If  it  were  possible 
to  regard  the  passage  containing  this  proposal  as  an  interpolation  in  the  original  - 
romance,  it  might  then  be  regarded  as  an  attempt  to  palliate  Henry  VUX's  con- 
duct to  Anne  of  Cleves. 


Loves  of  the  Lawyers.  57 

she  was  Francis  Bacon's  near  relation;  and  though  the 
Cecils  were  not  inclined  to  help  him  to  fortune,  he  was 
nevertheless  one  of  their  connection,  and  consequently 
often  found  himself  in  farailiar  conversation  with  the 
bright  and  fascinating  woman.  Doubtless  she  played 
with  him,  persuading  herself  that  she  merely  treated 
him  with  cousinly  cordiality,  when  she  was  designedly 
making  him  her  lover.  The  marvel  was  that  she  did 
not  give  him  her  hand;  that  he  sought  it  is  no  occasion 
for  surprise — or  for  insinuations  that  he  coveted  her 
wealth.  Biography  is  by  turns  mischievously  commu- 
nicative and  vexatiously  silent.  That  Bacon  loved  Sir 
William  Hatton's  widow,  and  induced  Essex  to  support 
his  suit,  and  that  rejecting  bim  she  gave  herself  to  his 
enemy,  we  know;  but  history  tells  us  nothing  of  the 
secret  struggle  which  preceded  the  lady's  resolution  to 
become  the  wife  of  an  unalluring,  ungracious,  peevish, 
middle-aged  widower.  She  must  have  felt  some  ten- 
derness for  her  cousin,  whose  comeliness  spoke  to  every 
eye,  whose  wit  was  extolled  by  every  lip.  Perhaps  she, 
like  many  others,  had  misread  the  essay  '  Of  Love,'  and 
felt  herself  bound  in  honor  to  bring  the  philosopher  to 
his  knees  at  her  feet.  It  is  credible  that  from  the  outset 
of  their  sentimental  intercourse,  she  intended  to  win  and 
then  to  flout  him.  But  coquetry  cannot  conquer  the 
first  laws  of  human  feeling.  To  be  a  good  flirt,  a  woman 
must  have  nerve  and  a  sympathetic  nature;  and  doubt- 
less the  flirt  in  this  instance  paid  for  her  triumph  with 
the  smart  of  a  lasting  wound.  Is  it  fanciful  to  argue 
that  her  subsequent  violence  and  misconduct,  her  im- 
patience of  control  and  scandalous  disrespect  for  her 
aged  husband,  may  have  been  in  some  part  due  to  the 
sacrifice  of  personal  inclination  which  she  made  in  accept- 
ing Coke  at  the  entreaty  of  prudent  and  selfish  relations 
— and  to  the  contrast,  perpetually  haunting  her,  between 
3* 


58  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

what  she  was  as  Sir  Edward's  termagant  partner,  and 
what  she  might  have  been  as  Francis  Bacon's  wife  ? 

She  consented  to  a  marriage  with  Edward  Coke,  but 
was  so  ashamed  of  her  choice,  that  she  insisted  on  a 
private  celebration  of  their  union,  although  Archbishop 
Whitgift  had  recently  raised  his  voice  against  the  scandal 
of  clandestine  weddings,  and  had  actually  forbidden 
them.  In  the  face  of  the  primate's  edict  the  ill-assorted 
couple  were  united  in  wedlock,  without  license  or  publi- 
cation of  banns,  by  a  country  parson,  who  braved  the 
displeasure  of  "Whitgift,  in  order  that  he  might  secure 
the  favor  of  a  secular  patron.  The  wedding-day  was 
November  24,  1598,  the  bridegroom's  first  wife  having 
been  buried  on  the  24th  of  the  previous  July.*  On 
learning  the  violation  of  his  orders,  the  archbishop  was 
so  incensed  that  he  resolved  to  excommunicate  the 
offenders,  and  actually  instituted  for  that  purpose  legal 
proceedings,  which  were  not  dropped  until  bride  and 
bridegroom  humbly  sued  for  pardon,  pleading  ignorance 
of  law  in  excuse  of  their  misbehavior. 

The  scandalous  consequences  of  that  marriage,  are 
known  to  every  reader  who  has  laughed  over  the  more 
pungent  and  comic  scenes  of  English  history.  Whilst 
Lady  Hatton  gave  masques  and  balls  in  the  superb  palace 
which  came  into  her  possession  through  marriage  with 
Sir  Christopher  Hatton's  nephew,  Coke  lived  in  his 
chambers,  working  at  cases  and  writing  the  books  which 

*  When  due  allowance  has  been  made  for  the  difference  between  the  usages  of 
the  sixteenth  century  and  the  present  time,  decency  was  signally  violated  by  this 
marriage,  which  followed  so  soon  upon  Mrs.  Coke's  death,  and  still  sooner  upon 
the  death  of  Lady  Hatton's  famous  grandfather,  at  whose  funeral  the  lawyer  made 
the  first  overtures  for  her  hand.  Mrs.  Coke  died  June  27, '1598,  and  was  buried  at 
Uuntingfteld,  co.  8uffolk,  July  24, 151)8.  Lord  Burleigh  expired  on  August  4,  of  the 
same  year.  Coke's  first  marriage  was  not  unhappy;  and  on  the  death  of  his  wife 
by  that  union,  he  wrote  in  his  note-book: — "  Most  beloved  and  most  excellent  wife, 
she  well  and  happily  lived,  and,  as  a  true  handmaid  of  the  Lord,  fell  asleep  ill  the 
Lord,  and  now  lives  and  reigns  in  heaven."  In  after  yours  he  often  wished  most 
cordially  that  he  could  say  as  much  for  his  second  wife. 


Loves  of  the  Lawyers.  59 

are  still  carefully  studied  by  every  young  man  who  wishes 
to  make  himself  a  master  of  our  law.  In  private  they  had 
perpetual  squabbles,  and  they  quarrelled  with  equal 
virulence  and  indecency  before  the  world.  The  matri- 
monial settlement  of  their  only  and  ill-starred  daughter 
was  the  occasion  of  an  outbreak  on  the  part  of  husband 
and  wife,  that  not  only  furnished  diversion  for  courtiers 
but  agitated  the  council  table.  Of  all  the  comic  scenes 
connected  with  that  unseemly  fracas,  not  the  least  laugh- 
able and  characteristic  was  the  grand  festival  of  recon- 
ciliation at  Hatton  House,  when  Lady  Hatton  received 
the  king  and  queen  in  Holborn,  and  expressly  forbade 
her  husband  to  presume  to  show  himself  among  her 
guests.  "The  expectancy  of  Sir  Edward's  rising,"  says 
a  writer  of  the  period,*  "is  much  abated  by  reason  of 
his  lady's  liberty,  f  who  was  brought  in  great  honor  to 
Exeter  House  by  my  Lord  of  Buckingham  from  Sir 
"William  Craven's,  whither  she  had  been  remanded,  pre- 
sented by  his  lordship  to  the  king,  received  gracious 
usage,  reconciled  to  her  daughter  by  his  Majesty,  and 
her  house  in  Holborn  enlightened  by  his  presence  at  a 
dinner,  where  there  was  a  royal  feast;  and  to  make  it 


*  Strafford's  Letters  and  Despatches,  L  5. 

t  Lady  Hatton  never  used  her  second  husband's  name  either  before  or  after  his 
knighthood.  A  good  case,  touching  the  customary  right  of  a  married  lady  to  bear 
the  name,  and  take  her  title  from  the  rank  of  a  former  husband,  is  that  of  Sir 
Dudley  North,  Charles  n.'s  notorious  sheriff  of  London.  The  son  of  an  English 
peer,  he  married  Lady  Gunning,  the  widow  of  a  wealthy  civic  knight,  and  daughter 
of  Sir  Robert  Cann,  "a  morose  old  merchant  of  Bristol" — the  same  magistrate 
whom  Judge  Jeffreys,  in  terms  not  less  just  than  emphatic,  upbraided  for  his  con- 
nection with,  or  to  speak  moderately,  his  connivance  at,  the  Bristol  kidnappers. 
It  might  bo  thought  that  the  merchant's  daughter,  on  her  marriage  with  a  peer's 
son,  would  be  well  content  to  relinquish  the  title  of  Lady  Gunning;  but  Roger 
North  tells  us  that  his  brother  Dudley  accepted  knighthood,  in  order  that  he  might 
avoid  giving  offence  to  the  city,  and  also,  in  order  that  his  wife  might  be  called 
Lady  North,  and  not  Lady  Gunning.—  Vide  Lift,  of  the  Hon.  Sir  Dudley  North. 
After  Sir  Thomas  Wilde  (subsequently  Lord  Truro),  married'Augusta  Emma  d'Este, 
the  daughter  of  the  duke  of  Sussex  and  Lady  Augusta  Murray,  that  lady,  of  whose 
legitimacy  Sir  Thomas  had  vainly  endeavored  to  convince  tho  House  of  Lords,  re-' 


60  A  Book  about    Lawyers. 

more  absolutely  her  own,  express  commandment  given 
by  lier  ladyship,  that  neither  Sir  Edward  Coke  nor  any 
of  his  servants  should  be  admitted." 

If  tradition  may  be  credited,  the  law  is  greatly  indebted 
to  the  class  of  women  whom  it  was  our  forefathers'  bar- 
barous wont  to  punish  with  the  ducking-stool. '  Had 
Coke  been  happy  in  his  second  marriage,  it  is  assumed 
that  he  would  have  spent  more  time  in  pleasure  and  fewer 
hours  at  his  desk,  that  the  suitors  in  his  court  would 
have  had  less  careful  decisions,  and  that  posterity  would 
have  been  favored  with  fewer  reports.  If  the  inference 
is  just,  society  may  point  to  the  commentary  on  Little- 
ton, and  be  thankful  for  the  ladv's  unhappy  temper  and 
sharp  tongue.  In  like  manner  the  wits  of  the  following 
century  maintained  that  Holt's  steady  application  to 
business  was  a  consequence  of  domestic  misery.  The 
lady  who  ruled  his  house  in  Bedford  Row,  is  said  to  have 
been  such  a  virago,  that  the  Chief  Justice  frequently  re- 


tained her  maiden  surname.  In  society  she  was  generally  known  as  the  Princess 
d'Este,'  and  the  bilioussatirists  of  the  Inns  of  Court  used  to  speak  of  Sir  Thomas  as  the 
Prince.'  It  was  said  that  one  of  Wilde's  familiar  associates,  soon  after  the  lawyer's 
marriage,  called  at  his  house  and  asked  if  the  Princess  d'Este  was  at  home.  "  No, 
sir,"  replied  the  servant,  "  the  Princess  d'Este  is  not  at  home,  but  the  Prince  Is !" 
That  this  malicious  story  obtained  a  wide  currency  is  not  wonderful;  that  it  is  a 
truthful  anecdote  the  writer  of  this  book  would  not  like  to  pledge  his  credit  The 
case  of  Sir  John  Campbell  and  Lady  Strathedou,  was  a  notable  instance  of  a  lawyer 
and  his  wife  bearing  different  names.  Raised  to  the  peerage,  with  tin-  tit!.-  of 
Baroness  Htratheden,  the  first  Lord  Ablnger's  oldest  daughter  w:i*  Indebted  to  bet 
husband  for  an  honor  that  ma,de  him  her  social  Inferior.  Many  readers  will  re- 
member a  droll  story  of  a  misapprehension  caused  by  her  ladyship's  title,  taring 
an  official  journey,  Sir  John  Campbell  and  Baroness  Btnlhedaa  slept  at  lodgings 
which  he  had  frequently  occupied  as  a  drcuiteer.  On  the  morning  after  his 
arrival,  the  landlady  obtained  a  special  interview  with  Campbell,  and  in  the 
baroness's  absence  thus  addressed  him,  with  mingled  indignation  and  respectful- 
ness:— "Sir  John  Campt>ell,  I  am  a  lone  widow,  and  live  by  my  good  name.  It  is 
not  in  my  humble  place  to  be  too  curious  about  the  ladies  brought  to  my  lodgings 
by  counsellors  and  judges.  It  is  not  in  me  to  make  remarks  if  a  counsellor's  lady 
changes  the  color  of  her  eyes,  and-  her  complexion  every  assizes.  But,  Sir  John, 
a  gentleman  ought  not  to  bring -a  lady  to  a  lone  widow's  lodgings,  unless  so  long  as 
he  '  okkipies'  the  apartments  he  makes  all  honorable  professions  that  the  lady  is 
his  wife,  and  as  such  gives  her  the  use  of  his  name.'' 


Loves  of  the  Lawyers.  61 

tired  to  his  chambers,  in  order  that  he  might  place 
himself  beyond  reach  of  her  voice.  Amongst  the  good 
stories  told  of  Radcliffe,  the  Tory  physician,  is  the  tradi- 
tion of  his  boast,  that  he  kept  Lady  Holt  alive  out  of  pure 
political  animosity  to  the  Whig  Chief  Justice.  Another 
eminent  lawyer,  over  whose  troubles  people  have  made 
merry  in  the  same  fashion,  was  Jeffrey  Gilbert,  Baron  of 
the  Exchequer.  At  his  death,  October  14,  1726,  this 
learned  judge  left  behind  him  that  mass  of  reports,  his- 
tories, and  treatises  by  which  he  is  known  as  one  of  the 
most  luminous,  as  well  as  voluminous  of  legal  writers. 
None  of  his  works  passed  through  the  press  during  his 
life,  and  when  their  number  and  value  were  discovered 
after  his  departure  to  another  world,  it  was  whispered  that 
they  had  been  composed  in  hours  of  banishment  from  a 
hearth  where  a  scolding  wife  made  misery  for  all  who 
came  within  the  range  of  her  querulous  notes. 

Disappointed  in  his  suit  to  his  beautiful  and  domineer- 
ing cousin,  Bacon  let  some  five  or  six  years  pass  before 
he  allowed  his  thoughts  again  to  turn  to  love,  and  then 
he  wooed  and  waited  for  nearly  three  years  more,  ere,  on 
a  bright  May  day,  he  met  Alice  Barnham  in  Marylebone 
Chapel,  and  made  her  his  wife  in  the  presence  of  a 
courtly  company.  In  the  July  of  1603,  he  wrote  to 
Cecil: — "  For  this  divulged  and  almost  prostituted  title 
of  knighthood,  I  could,  without  charge  by  your  honor's 
mean,  be  content  to  have  it,  both  because  of  this  late 
disgrace,  and  because  I  have  three  new  knights  in  my 
mess  in  Gray's  Inn  Commons,  and  because  I  have"found 
out  an  alderman's  daughter,  a  handsome  maiden,  to  my 
liking.  So  as  if  your  honor  will  find  the  time,  I  will 
come  to  the  court  from  Gorhambury  upon  any  warning." 
This  expression,  'an  alderman's  daughter,'  contributed 
greatly,  if  it  did  not  give  rise  to,  the  misapprehension 
that  Bacon's  marriage  was  a  mercenary  arrangement. 


62  -      A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

In  these  later  times  the  social  status  of  an  alderman  is  so 
much  beneath  the  rank  of  a  distinguished  member  of  the 
bar,  that  a  successful  queen's  counsel,  who  should  make 
an  offer  to  the  daughter  of  a  City  magistrate,  would  be 
regarded  as  bent  upon  a  decidedly  unambitious  match; 
and  if  in  a  significant  tone  he  spoke  of  the  lady  as  '  an 
alderman's  daughter'  his  words  might  be  reasonably  con- 
strued as  a  hint  that  her  fortune  atoned  for  her  want  of 
rank.  But  it  never  occurred  to  Bacon's  contemporaries 
to  put  such  a  construction  on  the  announcement.  Far 
from  using  the  words  in  an  apologetic  manner,  the  lover 
meant  them  to  express  concisely  that  Alice  Barnham  was 
a  lady  of  suitable  condition  to  bear  a  title  as  well  as  to 
become  his  bride.  Cecil  regarded  them  merely  as  an 
assurance  that  his  relative  meditated  a  suitable  and  even 
advantageous  alliance,  just  as  any  statesman  of  the 
present  day  would  read  an  announcement  that  a  kinsman, 
making  his  way  in  the  law-courts,  intended  to  marry  '  an 
admiral's  daughter'  or  a  'bishop's  daughter.'  That  it  was 
the  reverse  of  a  mercenary  marriage,  Mr.  Hepworth 
Dixon  has  indisputably  proved  in  his  eighth  chapter  of 
'The  Story  of  Lord  Bacon's  Life,'  where  he  contrasts 
Lady  Bacon's  modest Jortune  with  her  husband's  personal 
acquisitions  and  prospects. 


CHAPTER  VIIL 

REJECTED    ADDRESSES. 


NO  lawyer  of  the  Second  Charles's  time  surpassed 
Francis  North  in  love  of  money,  or  was  more  firmly 
resolved  not  to  marry,  without  due  and  substantial  con- 
sideration. 


Loves  of  the  Lawyers.  63 

His  first  proposal  was  for  the  daughter  of  a  Gray's 
Inn  money-lender.  Usury  was  not  a  less  contemptible 
vocation  in  the  seventeenth  century  than  it  is  at  the  pre- 
sent time;  and  most  young  barristers  of  gentle  descent 
and  fair  prospects  would  have  preferred  any  lot  to  the 
degradation  of  marriage  with  the  child  of  the  most  fortu- 
nate usurer  in  Charles  II. 's  London.  But  the  Hon. 
Francis  North  was  placed  comfortably  beneath  the  pre- 
judices of  his  order  and  time  of  life.  He  was  of  noble 
birth,  but  quite  ready  to  marry  into  a  plebeian  family; 
he  was  young,  but  loved  money  more  than  aught  else. 
So  his  hearing  was  quickened  and  his  blood  beat  merrily 
when,  one  fine  morning,  "  there  came  to  him  a  recom- 
mendation of  a  lady,  who  was  an  only  daughter  of  an  old 
usurer  in  Gray's  Inn,  supposed  to  be  a  good  fortune  in 
present,  for  her  father  was  rich;  but,  after  his  death,  to 
become  worth,  nobody  could  tell  what."  One  would 
like  to  know  how  that  'recommendation  of  a  lady' 
reached  the  lawyer's  chambers;  above  all,  who  sent  it  ? 

"  His  lordship,"  continues  Roger  North,  "  got  a  sight 
of  the  lady,  and  did  not  dislike  her;  thereupon  he  made 
the  old  man  a  visit,  and  a  proposal  of  himself  to  marry 
his  daughter.  "By  all  means  let  this  ingenuous,  high- 
spirited  Templar  have  a  fair  judgment.  He  would  not 
have  sold  himself  to  just  any  woman.  He  required  a 
maximum  of  wealth  with  a  minimum  of  personal  repul- 
siveness.  He  therefore  '  took  a  sight  of  the  lady '  (it 
does  not  appear  that  he  talked  with  her)  before  he  com- 
mitted himself  irrevocably  by  a  proposal.  The  sight 
having  been  taken,  as  he  did  not  dislike  her  (mind,  he 
did  not  positively  like  her)  he  made  the  old  man  a  visit. 
Loving  money,  and  believing  in  it,  this  '  old  man  '  wished 
to  secure  as  much  of  it  as  possible  for  his  only  child; 
and  therefore  looking  keenly  at  the  youthful  admirer  of 
a  usurer's  heiress,  "  asked  him  what  estate  his  father  in- 


64  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

tended  to  settle  upon  him  for  present  maintenance,  join- 
ture, and  provision  for  children."  Mildly  and  not  unjustly 
Roger  calls  this  "  an  inauspicious  question."  It  was  so 
inauspicious  that  Mr.  Francis  North  abruptly  terminated 
the  discussion  by  wishing  the  usurer  good-morning.  So 
ended  Love  Affair  No.  1. 

Having  lost  his  dear  companion,  Mr.  Edward  Palmer, 
son  of  the  powerful  Sir  Geoffry  Palmer,  Mr.  Francis 
North  soon  regarded  his  friend's  wife  with  tender  long- 
ing. It  was  only  natural  that  he  should  desire  to  miti- 
gate his  sorrow  for  the  dead  by  possession  of  the  woman 
who  was  "left  a  flourishing  widow,  and  very  rich."  But 
the  lady  knew-her  worth,  as  well  she  might,  for  "  never 
was  lady  more  closely  besieged  with  wooers:,  she  had  no 
less  than  five  younger  sons  sat  down  before  her  at  one 
time,  and  she  kept  them  well  in  hand,  as  they  say, 
giving  no  definite  answers  to  any  of  one  of  them."  Small 
respect  did  Mistress  Edward  Palmer  show  her  late 
husband's  most  intimate  friend.  For  weeks  she  tortured 
the  wretched,  knavish  fellow  with  coquettish  tricks,  and 
having  rendered  him  miserable  in  many  ways,  made  him 
ludicrous  by  jilting  him.  "He  was  held  at  the  long 
saw  above  a  month,  doing  his  duty  as  well  as  he  might, 
and  that  was  but  clumsily;  for  he  neither  dressed  nor 
danced,  when  his  rivals  were  adroit  at  both,  and  the  lady 
used  to  shuffle  her  favors  amongst  them  affectedly,  and 
on  purpose  to  mortify  his  lordship,  and  at  the  same  time 
be  as  civil  to  him,  with  like  purpose  to  mortify  them." 
Poor  Mr.  Francis !  Well  may  his  brother  write  in- 
dignantly, "  It  was  very  grievous  to  him — that  had  his 
thoughts  upon  his  clients'  concerns,  which  came  in 
thick  upon  him — to  be  held  in  a  course  of  bo-peep  play 
with  a  crafty  widow."  At  length,  "  after  a  clancular 
proceeding,"  this  crafty  widow,  by  marrying  "a  jolly 
knight  of  a  good  estate,"  set  her  victims  free;  and  Mr. 


Loves  of  the  Lawyers.  65 

Francis  was  at  liberty  to  look  elsewhere  for  a  lapful  of 
money. 

Roger  North  tells  the  story  of  the  third  affair  so  con- 
cisely and  pithily  that  his  exact  words  must  be  put 
before  the  reader: — "Another  proposition  came  to  his 
lordship,"  writes  the  fraternal  biographer,  giving  Francis 
North  credit  for  the  title  he  subsequently  won,  although 
at  the  time  under  consideration  he  was  plain  Mister 
North,  on  the  keen  look-out  for  the  place  of  Solicitor 
General,  "by  a  city  broker,  from  Sir  John  Lawrence, 
who  had  many  daughters,  and  those  reputed  beauties; 
and  the  fortune  was  to  be  £6000.  His  lordship  went 
and  dined  with  the  alderman,  and  liked  the  lady,  who  (as 
the  way  is)  was  dressed  out  for  a  muster.  And  coming 
to  treat,  the  portion  shrank  to  £5000,  and  upon  that  his 
lordship  parted,  and  was  not  gone  far  before  Mr. 
Broker  (following)  came  to  him,  and  said  Sir  John  would 
give  £500  more  at  the  birth  of  the  first  child;  but  that 
would  not  do,  for  his  lordship  hated  such  screwing.  Not 
long  after  this  dispute,  his  lordship  was  made  the  King's 
Solicitor  General,  and  .then  the  broker  came  again,  with 
news  that  Sir  John  would  give  £10,000.  'No/  his 
lordship  said,  '  after  such  usage  he  would  not  proceed  if 
he  might  have  £20,000.'"  The  intervention  of  the 
broker  in  this  negotiation  is  delightfully  suggestive. 
More  should  have  been  said  about  him — his  name, 
address,  and  terms  for  doing  business.  Was  he  paid  for 
his  services  on  all  that  he  could  save  from  a  certain  sum 
beyond  which  his  employer  would  not  advance  a  single 
gold-piece  for  the  disposal  of  his  child  ?  Were  there,  in 
olden  time,  men  who  avowed  themselves  '  Heart  and 
Jointure  Brokers,  Agents  for  Lovers  of  both  Sexes,  Con- 
tractors of  Mutual  Attachments,  Wholesale  and  Retail 
Dealers  in  Reciprocal  Affection,  and  General  Referees, 
Respondents,  and  Insurers  in  all  Sentimental  Affairs, 
Clandestine  or  otherwise  ?' 


66  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

After  these  mischances  Francis  North  made  an  eligible 
match  under  somewhat  singular  circumstances.  As  co- 
heiresses of  Thomas,  Earl  of  Down,  three  sisters,  the  La- 
dies Pope,  claimed  under  certain  settlements  large  estates 
of  inheritance,  to  which  Lady  Elizabeth  Lee  set  up  a  coun- 
ter claim.  North,  acting  as  Lady  Elizabeth  Lee's  counsel, 
effected  a  compromise  which  secured  half  the  property  in 
dispute  to  his  client,  and  diminished  by  one-half  the  for- 
tunes to  which  each  of  the  three  suitors  on  the  other  side 
had  maintained  their  right.  Having  thus  reduced  the 
estate  of  Lady  Frances  Pope  to  a  fortune  estimated  at 
about  £14,000,  the  lawyer  proposed  for  her  hand,  and  was 
accepted.  After  his  marriage,  alluding  to  his  exertions 
in  behalf  of  Lady  Elizabeth  Lee's  very  disputable  claim, 
he  used  to  say  that  "  he  had  been  counsel  against  himself;" 
but  Roger  North  frankly  admits  that  "  if  this  question 
had  not  come  to  such  a  composition,  which  diminished 
the  ladies'  fortunes,  his  brother  had  never  compassed  his 
match." 

It  was  not  without  reluctance  that  the  Countess  of 
Downs  consented  to  the  union  of  her  daughter  with  the 
lawyer  who  had  half  ruined  her,  and  who  (though  he  was 
Solicitor  General  and  in  fine  practice)  could  settle  only 
J65000  upon  the  lady.  "I  well  remember,"  observes 
Roger,  "  the  good  countess  had  some  qualms,  and  com- 
plained that  she  knew  not  how  she  could  justify  what  she 
had  done  (meaning  the  marrying  her  daughters  with  no 
better  settlement)."  To  these  qualms  Francis  North, 
with  lawyer-like  coolness,  answered — "  Madam,  if  you 
meet  with  any  question  about  that,  say  that  your  daughter 
has  £1000  per  annum  jointure." 

The  marriage  was  celebrated  in  Wroxton  Church;  and 
after  bountiful  rejoicings  with  certain  loyalist  families 
of  Oxfordshire,  the  happy  couple  went  up  to  London  and 
lived  in  chambers  until  they  moved  into  a  house  in  Chan- 
cery Lane. 


Loves  of  Hie  Lawyers.  67 

It  may  surprise  some  readers  of  this  book  to  learn  that 
George  Jeffreys,  the  odious  judge  of  the  Bloody  Circuit, 
was  a  successful  gallant.  Tall,  well-shaped,  and  endowed 
by  nature  with  a  pleasant  countenance  and  agreeable  fea- 
tures, Jeffreys  was  one  of  the  most  fascinating  men  of  his 
time.  A  wit  and  a  bon-vivant,  he  could  hit  the  humor 
of  the  roystering  cavaliers  who  surrounded  the  ( merry 
monarch;'  a  man  of  gallantry  and  polite  accomplish- 
ments, he  was  acceptable  to  women  of  society.  The  same 
tongue  that  bullied  from  the  bench,  when  witnesses  were 
perverse  or  counsel  unruly,  could  flatter  with  such 
melodious  affectation  of  sincerity,  that  he  was  known  as  a 
most  delightf  ul  companion.  As  a  musical  connoisseur  he 
spoke  with  authority;  as  a  teller  of  good  stories  he  had 
no  equal  in  town.  Even  those  who  detested  him  did  not 
venture  to  deny  that  in  the  discharge  of  his  judicial 
offices  he  could  at  his  pleasure  assume  a  dignity  and 
urbane  composure  that  well  became  the  seat  of  justice.  In 
short,  his  talents  and  graces  were  so  various  and  effective, 
that  he  would  have  risen  to  the  bench,  even  if  he  had 
labored  under  the  disadvantages  of  pure  morality  and 
amiable  temper. 

Women  declared  him  irresistible.  At  court  he  had 
the  ear  of  Nell  Gwyn  and  the  Duchess  of  Portsmouth — 
the  Protestant  favorite  and  the  Catholic  mistress;  and 
before  he  attained  the  privilege  of  entering  Whitehall — 
at  a  time  when  his  creditors  were  urgent,  and  his  best 
clients  were  the  inferior  attorneys  of  the  city  courts — he 
was  loved  by  virtuous  girls.  He  was  still  poor,  unknown, 
and  struggling  with  difficulties,  when  he  induced  an 
heiress  to  accept  his  suit, — the  daughter  of  a  rural  squire 
whose  wine  the  barrister  had  drunk  upon  ch'cuit.  This 
young  lady  was  wooed  under  circumstances  of  peculiar 
difficulty;  and  she  promised  to  elope  with  him  if  her 
father  refused  to  receive  him  as  a  son-in-law.     Hl-luck 


68  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

befell  the  scheme;  and  whilst  young  Jeffreys  was  waiting 
in  the  Temple  for  the  letter  which  should  decide  his  move- 
ments, an  intimation  reached  him  that  elopement  was 
impossible  and  union  forbidden.  The  bearer  of  this  bad 
news  was  a  young  lady — the  child  of  a  poor  clergyman — 
who  had  been  the  confidential  friend  and  paid  companion 
of  the  squire's  daughter. 

The  case  was  hard  for  Jeffreys,  cruel  for  the  fair  mes- 
senger. He  had  lost  an  advantageous  match,  she  had 
lost  her  daily  bread.  Furious  with  her  for  having  acted 
as  the  confidante  of  the  clandestine  lovers,  the  squire  had 
turned  this  poor  girl  out  of  his  house;  and  she  had  come 
to  London  to  seek  for  employment  as  well  as  to  report 
the  disaster. 

Jeffreys  saw  her  overpowered  with  trouble  and  shame 
— penniless  in  the  great  city,  and  disgraced  by  expulsion 
from  her  patron's  roof.  Seeing  that  her  abject  plight 
was  the  consequence  of  amiable  readiness  to  serve  him, 
Jeffreys  pitied  and  consoled  her.  Most  young  men  would 
have  soothed  their  consciences  and  dried  the  running 
tears  with  a  gift  of  money  or  a  letter  recommending  the 
outcast  to  a  new  employer.  As  she  was  pretty,  a  liber- 
tine would  have  tried  to  seduce  her.  In  Jeffreys,  com- 
passion roused  a  still  finer  sentiment :  he  loved  the  poor 
girl  and  married  her.  On  May  23,  1667,  Sarah  Neesham 
was  married  to  George  Jeffreys  of  the  Inner  Temple;  and 
her  father,  in  proof  of  his  complete  forgiveness  of  her  es- 
capade, gave  her  a  fortune  of  .£300 — a  sum  which  the  poor 
clergyman  could  not- well  afford  to  bestow  on  the  newly 
married  couple. 

Having  outlived  Sarah  Neesham,  Jeffreys  married 
again — taking  for  his  second  wife  a  widow  whose  father 
was  Sir  Thomas  Bludworth,  ex-Lord  Mayor  of  London. 
"Whether  rumor  treated  her  unjustly  it  is  impossible  to 
say  at  this  distance  of  time  ;  but  if  reliance  may  be  put 


Loves  of  the  Lawyers.  .     69 

on  many  broad  stories  current  about  the  lady,  her  conduct 
was  by  no  means  free  from  fault.  She  was  reputed  to 
entertain  many  lovers.  Jeffreys  would  have  created  less 
scandal  if,  instead  of  talcing  her  to  his  home,  he  had  imi- 
tated the  pious  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  who  married  his  maid- 
servant, and  on  being  twitted  by  the  world  with  the  low- 
liness of  his  choice,  silenced  his  censors  with  a  jest. 

Amongst  ths  love  affairs  of  seventeenth-century  lawyers 
place  must  be  made  for  mention  of  the  second  wife  whom 
Chief  Justice  Bramston  brought  home  from  Ireland, 
where  she  had  outlived  two  husbands  (the  Bishop  of 
Clogher  and  Sir  John  Brereton),  before  she  gave  her 
hand  to  the  judge  who  had  loved  her  in  his  boyhood. 
"When  I  see  her,"  says  the  Chief  Justice's  son,  who  de- 
scribes the  expedition  to  Dublin,  and  the  return  to  Lon- 
don, "I  confess  I  wondered  at  my  father's  love.  She 
was  low,  fatt,  red-faced  ;  her  dress,  too,  was  a  hat  and 
ruff,  which  tho'  she  never  changed  to  death.  But  my 
father,  I  believe,  seeing  me  change  countenance,  told  me 
it  was  not  beautie,  but  virtue,  he  courted.  I  believe  she 
had  been  handsome  in  her  youth  ;  she  had  a  delicate,  fine 
hand,  white  and  plump,  and  indeed  proved  a  good  wife 
and  mother-in-law,  too."  On  her  journey  to  Charles  I.'s 
London,  this  elderly  bride,  in  her  antiquated  attire,  rode 
from  Holyhead  to  Beaumaris  on  a  pillion  behind  her  step- 
son. "  As  she  rode  over  the  sandes,"  records  her  step- 
son, "behind mee,  and  pulling  off  her  gloves,  her  wed- 
ding ringe  fell  off,  and  sunk  instantly.  She  caused  her 
man  to  alight ;  she  sate  still  behind  me,  and  kept  her  eye 
on  the  place,  and  directed  her  man,  but  he  not  guessing 
well,  she  leaped  off,  saying  she  would  not  stir  without 
her  ringe,  it  being  the  most  unfortunate  thinge  that  could 
befall  any  one  to  lose  the  wedding-ringe — made  the  man 
thrust  his  hand  into  the  sands  (the  nature  of  which  is 
not  to   bear   any  weight   but   passing),  he   pulled  up 


70  .      A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

sand,  but  not  the  ringe.  She  made  him  strip  his  arme 
and  put  it  deeper  into  the  sand,  and  pulled  up  the  ringe; 
and  this  done,  he  and  shee,  and  all  that  stood  still,  were 
sunk  almost  to  the  knees,  but  we  were  all  pleased  that 
the  ringe  was  found." 

In  the  legal  circle  of  .Charles  the  Second's  London, 
Lady  King  was  notable  as  a  virago  whose  shrill  tongue 
disturbed  her  husband's  peace  of  mind  by  day,  and  broke 
his  rest  at  night.  Earning  a  larger  income  than  any 
other  barrister  of  his  time,  he  had  little  leisure  for  do- 
mestic society  ;  but  the  few  hours  which  he  could  have 
spent  with  his  wife  and  children,  he  usually  preferred  to 
spend  in  a  tavern,  beyond  the  reach  of  his  lady's  sharp 
querulousness.  "  AH  his  misfortune,"  says  Boger  North, 
"  lay  at  home,  in  perverse  consort,  who  always,  after  his 
day-labor  done,  entertained  him  with  all  the  chagrin  and 
peevishness  imaginable  ;  so  that  he  went  home  as  to  his 
prison,  or  worse  ;  and  when  the  time  came,  rather  than 
go  home,  he  chose  commonly  to  get  a  friend  to  go  and 
sit  in  a  free  chat  at  the  tavern,  over  a  single  bottle,  till 
twelve  or  one  at  night,  and  then  to  work  again  at  five  in 
the  morning.  His  fatigue  in  business,  which,  as  I  said, 
was  more  than  ordinary  to  him,  and  his  no  comfort,  or 
rather,  discomfort  at  home,  and  taking  his  refreshment 
by  excising  his  sleep,  soon  pulled  him  down  ;  so  that, 
after  a  short  illness,  he  died."  On  his  death-bed,  how- 
ever, he  forgave  the  weeping  woman,  who,  more  through 
physical  irritability  than  wicked  design,  had  caused  him 
so  much  undeserved  discomfort ;  and  by  his  last  will  and 
testament  he  made  liberal  provision  for  her  wants.  Hav- 
ing made  his  will,  "  he  said,  I  am  glad  it  is  done,"  runs 
the  memoir  of  Sir  John  King,  written  by  his  father,  "and 
after  took  leave  of  his  wife,  who  was  full  of  tears  ;  seeing 
it  is  the  will  of  God,  let  us  part  quietly  in  friendship, 
with  submissiveness  to  his  will,  as  we  came  together  in 
friendship  by  His  will." 


Loves  of  the  Lawyers.  71 

CHAPTEE  IX. 

"  CICERO  "   UPON   HIS   TRIAL. 

A  COMPLETE  history  of  the  loves  of  lawyers  would 
notice  many  scandalous  intrigues  and  disreputable 
alliances,  and  would  comprise  a  good  deal  of  literature  for 
which  the  student  would  vainly  look  in  the  works  of  our 
best  authors.  From  the  days  of  "YVolsey,  whose  amours 
were  notorious,  and  whose  illegitimate  son  became  Dean 
of  Wells,  down  to  the  present  time  of  brighter  though  not 
unimpeachable  morality,  the  domestic  lives  of  our  eminent 
judges  and  advocates  have  too  frequently  invited  satire 
and  justified  regret.  In  the  eighteenth  century  judges, 
without  any  loss  of  caste  or  popular  regard,  openly  main- 
tained establishments  that  in  these  more  decorus  and 
actually  better  days  would  cover  their  keepers  with  ob- 
loquy. Attention  could  be  directed  to  more  than  one  le- 
gal family  in  which  the  descent  must  be  traced  through 
a  succession  of  illegitimate  births.  Not  only  did  eminent 
lawyers  live  openly  with  women  who  were  not  their  wives, 
and  with  children  whom  the  law  declined  to  recognize  as 
their  offspring  ;  but  these  women  and  children  moved  in 
good  society,  apparently  indifferent  to  shame  that  brought 
upon  them  but  few  inconveniences.  In  Great  Ormond 
Street,  where  a  mistress  and  several  illegitimate  children 
formed  his  family  circle,  Lord  Thurlow  was  visited  by 
bishops  and  deans  ;  and  it  is  said  that  in  1806,  when  Sir 
James  Mansfield,  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas, 
was  invited  to  the  woolsack  and  the  peerage,  he  was  in- 
duced to  decline  the  offer  more  by  consideration  for  his 
illegitimate  children  than  by  fears  for  the  stability  of  the 
new  administration. 

Speaking  of  Lord  Thurlow's  undisguised  intercourse 
with  Mrs.  Hervey,  Lord  Campbell  says,  "  When  I  first 


72  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

knew  the  profession,  it  would  not  have  been  endured  that 
any  one  in  a  judical  situation  should  have  had  such  a 
domestic  establishment  as  Thurlow's  ;  but  a  majority  of 
judges  had  married  their  mistresses.  The  understanding 
then  was  that  a  man  elevated  to  the  bench,  if  he  had  amis- 
tress,  must  either  marry  her  or  put  her  away.  For 
many  years  there  has  been  no  necessity  for  such  an  :il- 
ternative."  Either  Lord  Campbell  had  not  the  keen  ap- 
petite for  professional  gossip,  with  which  he  is  ordinarily 
credited,  or  his  conscience  must  have  pricked  him  when 
-he  wrote,  "  For  many  years  there  has  been  no  necessity 
for  such  an  alternative."  To  show  how  far  his  lordship 
erred  through  want  of  information  or  defect  of  candor 
is  not  the  duty  of  this  page  ;  but  without  making  any 
statement  that  can  wound  private  feeling,  the  present 
writer  may  observe  that  '  the  understanding/  to  which 
Lord  Campbell  draws  attention,  has  affected  the  for- 
tune of  ladies  within  the  present  generation. 

That  the  bright  and  high-minded  Somers  was  the  de- 
bauchee that  Mrs.  Manley  and  Mr.  Cooksey  would  have 
us  believe  him  is  incredible.  It  is  doubtful  if  Mackey 
in  his  'Sketch  of  Leading  Characters  at  the  English 
Court'  had  sufficient  reasons  for  clouding  his  sunny  pic- 
ture of  the  statesman  with  the  assertion  that  he  was 
"something  of  a  libertine."  But  there  are  occasions 
when  prudence  counsels  us  to  pay  attention  to  slander. 

Having  raised  himself  to  the  office  of  Solicitor  General, 
Somers,  like  Francis  Bacon,  found  an  alderman's  daughter 
to  his  liking  ;  and  having  formed  a  sincere  attachment 
for  her,  he  made  his  wishes  known  to  her  father.  Miss 
Anne  Bawdon's  father  was  a  wealthy  merchant,  styled 
Sir  John,  Bawdon — a  man  proud  of  his  civic  station  and 
riches,  and  thinking  lightly  of  lawyers  and  law.  When 
Somers  stated  his  property  and  projects,  the  rental  of  his 
small  landed  estate  and  the  buoyancy  of  his  professional 


Loves  of  the  Lawyers.  73 

income,  the  opulent  lmight  by  no  means  approved  the 
prospect  offered  to  his  child.  The  lawyer  might  die  in 
the  course  of  twelve  months  ;  in  which  case  the  Worces- 
tershire estate  would  be  still  a  small  estate,  and  the  pro- 
fessional income  would  cease.  In  twelve  months  Mr.  So- 
licitor might  be  proved  a  scoundrel,  for  at  heart  all  law- 
yers were  arrant  rogues ;  in  which  case  matters  would 
be  still  worse.  Having  regarded  the  question  from  these 
two  points  of  view,  Sir  John  Bawdon  gave  Somers  his 
dismissal  and  married  Miss  Anne  to  a  rich  Turkey  mer- 
chant. Three  years  later,  when  Somers  had  risen  to  the 
woolsack,  and  it  was  clear  that  the  rich  Turkey  merchant 
would  never  be  anything  grander  than  a  rich  Turkey 
merchant,  Sir  John' saw  that  he  had  made  a  serious  blun- 
der, for  which  his  child  certainly  could  not  thank  him. 
A  goodly  list  might  be  made  of  cases  where  papas  have 
erred  and  repented  in  Sir  John  Bawdon's  fashion.  Sir 
John  Lawrence  would  have  made  his  daughter  a  Lord 
Keeper's  lady  and  a  peeress,  if  he  and  his  broker  had 
dealt  more  liberally  with  Francis  North.  Had  it  not 
been  for  Sir  Joseph  Jekyll's  counsel,  Mr.  Cocks,  the  "Wor- 
cestershire squire,  would  have  rejected  Philip  Yorke  as 
an  ineligible  suitor,  in  whiclrease  plain  Mrs.  Lygon  would 
never  have  been  Lady  Hardwieke,  and  worked  her  hus- 
band's twenty  purses  of  state  upon  curtains  and  hangings 
of  crimson  velvet.  And,  if  he  were  so  inclined,  this  wri- 
ter could  point  to  a  learned  judge,  who  in  his  days  of 
'  stuff  and  '  guinea  fees'  was  deemed  an  ineligible  match 
for  a  country  apothecary's  pretty  daughter.  The  country 
doctor  being  able  to  give  his  daughter  .£20,000,  turned 
away  disdainfully  from  the  unknown  'junior,'  who  five 
years  later  was  leading  his  circuit,  and  quickly  rose  to  the 
high  office  which  he  still  fills  to  the  satisfaction  of  his 
country. 

Disappointed  in  his  pursuit  of  Anne  Bawdon,  Somers 
4 


74  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

never  again  made  any  woman  an  offer  of  marriage  ;  hut 
scandalous  gossip  accused  him  of  immoral  intercourse 
with  his  housekeeper.  This  woman's  name  was  Blount ; 
and  while  she  resided  with  the  Chancellor,  fame  whispered 
that  her  husband  was  still  living.  Not  only  was  Somers 
charged  with  open  adultery,  but  it  was  averred  that  for 
the  sake  of  peace  he  had  imprisoned  in  a  madhouse  his 
mistress's  lawful  husband,  who  was  originally  a  Worcester 
tradesman.  The  chief  authority  for  this  startling  impu- 
tation is  Mrs.  Manley,  who  was  encouraged,  if  not  actu- 
ally paid,  by  Swift  to  lampoon  his  political  adversaries. 
In  her  •  New  Atalantis' — the  '  Cicero'  of  which  scandalous 
work  was  understood  by  its  readers  to  signify  'Lord 
Somers,' — this  shameless  woman  entertained  quid-nuncs 
and  women  of  fashion  by  putting  this  abominable  story 
in  written  words,  the  coarseness  of  which  accorded  with 
the  repulsiveness  of  the  accusation. 

At  a  time  when  honest  writers  on  current  politics  were 
punished  with  fine  and  imprisonment,  the  pillory  and  the 
whip,  statesmen  and  ecclesiastics  were  not  ashamed  to 
keep  such  libellers  as  Mrs.  Manley  in  their  pay.  That 
the  reader  may  fully  appreciate  the  change  which  time 
has  wrought  in  the  tone  of  political  literature,  let  him 
contrast  the  virulence  and  malignity  of  this  unpleasant 
passage  from  the  New  Atalantis,  with  the  tone  which  re- 
cently characterized  the  public  discussion  of  the  case 
which  is  generally  known  by  the  name  of  '  The  Edmunds 
Scandal.' 

Notwithstanding  her  notorious  disregard  of  truth,  it  is 
"scarcely  credible  that  Mrs.  Manley's  scurrilous  charge  was 
in  no  way  countenanced  by  facts.  At  the  close  of  the 
seventeenth  century  to  keep  a  mistress  was  scarcely  re- 
garded as  an  offence  against  good  morals  ;  and  living  in 
accordance  with  the  fashion  of  the  time,  it  is  probable 
that  Somers  did  that  which  Lord  Thurlow,  after  an  inter- 


Loves  of  the  Lawyers.  75 

val  of  a  century,  was  able  to  do  without  rousing  public 
disapproval.  Had  his  private  life  been  spotless,  he  would 
doubtless  have  taken  legal  steps  to  silence  his  traducer  ; 
and  unsustained  by  a  knowledge  that  he  dared  not  court 
inquiry  into  his  domestic  arrangements,  Mrs.  Manley 
would  have  used  her  pen  with  greater  caution.  But  all 
persons  competent  to  form  an  opinion  on  the  case  have 
agreed  that  the  more  revolting  charges  of  the  indictment 
were  the  baseless  fictions  of  a  malicious  and  unclean 
mind. 


CHAPTEE  X. 

BROTHERS   IN   TROUBLE. 


FT  the  'Philosophical  Dictionary,'  Voltaire,  laboring 
under  misapprehension  of  carried  away  by  perverse 
humor,  made  the  following  strange  announcement : — "II 
est  public  en  Angleterre,  et  on  voudroit  le  nier  en  vain, 
que  le  Chancelier  Cowper  epousa  deux  femmes,  qui  vecu- 
rent  ensemble  dans  sa  maison  avec  une  concorde  singu- 
liere  qui  fit  honneur  a  tous  trois.  Plusieurs  curieux  ont 
encore  le  petit  livre  que  ce  Chancelier  composa  en  faveur 
de  la  Polygamic."  Tickled  by  the  extravagant  credulity 
or  grotesque  malice  of  this  declaration,  an  English  wit, 
improving  upon  the  published  words,  represented  the 
Frenchman  as  maintaining  that  the  custodian  of  the 
Great  Seal  of  England  was  called  the  Lord  Keeper,  be- 
cause, by  English  law,  he  was  permitted  to  keep  as  many 
wives  as  he  pleased. 

The  reader's  amusement  will  not  be  diminished  by  a 
brief  statement  of  the  facts  to  which  we  are  indebted  for 
Voltaire's  assertions. 

William  Cowper,  the  first  earl  of  his  line,  began  life 
with  a  reputation  for  dissipated  tastes  and  habits,  and  by 


76  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

unpleasant  experience  he  learned  how  difficult  it  is  to  get 
rid  of  a  bad  name.  The  son  of  a  Hertfordshire  baronet, 
he  was  still  a  law  student  when  he  formed  a  reprehensible 
connexion  with  an  unmarried  lady  of  that  county — Miss 
(or,  as  she  was  called  by  the  fashion  of  the  day  Mistress) 
Elizabeth  Culling,  of  Hertingfordbury  Park.  But  little 
is  known  of  this  woman.  Her  age  is  an  affair  of  uncer- 
tainty, and  all  the  minor  circumstances  of  her  intrigue 
with  young  William  Cowper  are  open  to  doubt  and  con- 
jecture ;  but  the  few  known  facts  justify  the  inference 
that  she  neither  merited  nor  found  much  pity  in  her  dis- 
grace, and  that  Wilham  erred  through  boyish  indiscretion 
rather  than  from  vicious  propensity.  She  bore  him  two 
children,  and  he  neither  married  her  nor  was  required  by 
public  opinion  to  marry  her.  The  respectability  of  their 
connexions  gave  the  affair  a  peculiar  interest,  and  afforded 
countenance  to  many  groundless  reports.  By  her  friends 
it  was  intimated  that  the  boy  had  not  triumphed  over  the 
lady's 'virtue  until  he  had  made  her  a  promise  of  marriage; 
and  some  persons  even  went  so  far  as  to  assert  that  they 
were  privately  married.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  at  one 
time  the  boy  intended  to  make  her  his  wife  as  soon  as  he 
should  be  independent  of  his  father,  and  free  to  please 
himself.  Beyond  question,  however,  is  it  that  they  were 
never  united  in  wedlock,  and  that  Will  Cowper  joined  the 
Home  Circuit  with  the  tenacious  fame  of  a  scapegrace 
and  roue". 

That  he  was  for  any  long  period  a  man  of  dissolute 
morals  is  improbable  ;  for  he  was  only  twenty-four  years 
of  age  when  he  was  called  to  the  bar,  and  before  his  call 
he  had  married  (after  a  year's  wooing)  a  virtuous  and  ex- 
emplary young  lady,  with  whom  he  lived  happily  for  more 
than  twenty  years.  A  merchant's  child,  whose  face  was 
her  fortune — Jwftith,  the  daughter  of  Sir  Robert  Booth, 
is  extolled  by  biographers  for  reclaiming  her  young  hus- 


-   Loves  of  the  Lawyers.  77 

band  from  a  life  of  levity  and  culpable  pleasure.  That 
he  loved  her  sincerely  from  the  date  of  their  imprudent 
marriage  till  the  date  of  her  death,  which  occurred  just 
about  six  months  before  his  elevation  to  the  woolsack,  there 
is  abundant  evidence. 

Judith  died  April  2,  1705,  and  in  the  September  of  the 
following  year  the  Lord  Keeper  married  Mary  Clavering, 
the  beautiful  and  virtuous  lady  of  the  bedchamber  to 
Caroline  Wilhelmina  Dorothea,  Princess  of  "Wales.  This 
lady  was  the  Countess  Cowper  whose  diary  was  published 
by  Mr.  Murray  in  the  spring  of  1864  ;  and  in  every  re- 
lation of  life  she  was  as  good  and  noble  a  creature  as  her 
predecessor  in  William  Cowper's  affection.  Of  the  loving 
terms  on  which  she  lived  with  her  lord,  conclusive  testi- 
mony is  found  in  their  published  letters  and  her  diary. 
Frequently  separated  by  his  professional  avocations  and 
her  duties  of  attendance  upon  the  Princess  of  Wales, 
they  maintained,  during  the  periods  of  personal  sever- 
ance, a  close  and  tender  intercourse  by  written  words  ; 
and  at  all  other  times,  in  sickness  not  less  than  in  health, 
they  were  a  fondly  united  couple.  One  pathetic  entry  in 
the  countess's  diary  speaks  eloquently  of  their  nuptial 
tenderness  and  devotion  : — "  April  7th,  1716.  After  din- 
ner we  went  to  Sir  Godfrey  Kneller's  to  see  a  picture  of 
my  lord,  which  he  is  drawing,  and  is  the  best  that  was 
ever  done  for  him  ;  it  is  for  my  drawing-room,  and  in  the 
same  posture  that  he  watched  me  so  many  weeks  in  my 
great  illness." 

Lord  Cowper's  second  marriage  was  solemnized  with  a 
secrecy  for  which  his  biographers  are  unable  to  account. 
The  event  took  place  September,  1706,  about  two  months 
before  his  father's  death,  but  it  was  not  announced  till 
the  end  of  February,  1707,  at  which  time  Luttrell  entered 
in  his  diary,  "  The  Lord  Keeper,  who  not  long  since  was 
privately  married  to  Mrs.  Clavering  of  the  bishoprick  of 


78  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

Durham,  brought  her  home  this  day."  Mr.  Foss,  in  his 
'  Judges  of  England,'  suggests  that  the  concealment  of 
the  union  "  may  not  improbably  be  explained  by  the  Lord 
Keeper's  desire  not  to  disturb  the  last  days  of  his  father, 
who  might  perhaps  have  been  disappointed  that  the  se- 
lection had  not  fallen  on  some  other  lady  to  whom  he  had 
wished  his  son  to  be  united."  But  this  conjecture,  not-  ■ 
withstanding  its  probability,  is  only  a  conjecture.  Unless 
they  had  grave  reasons  for  their  conduct,  the  Lord  Keeper 
and  his  lady  had  better  have  joined  hands  in  the  presence 
of  the  world,  for  the  mystery  of  their  private  wedding  net- 
tled public  curiosity,  and  gave  new  life  to  an  old  slander. 
Cowper's  boyish  escapade  was  not  forgotten  by  the 
malicious.  No  sooner  had  he  become  conspicuous  in 
his  profession  and  in  politics,  than  the  story  of  his  inter- 
course with  Miss  Culling  was  told  in  coffee-rooms  with 
all  the  exaggerations  that  prurient  fancy  could  devise  or 
enmity  dictate  The  old  tale  of  a  secret  marriage — or, 
still  worse,  of  a  mock  marriage — was  caught  from  the 
lips  of  some  Hertford  scandal-monger,  and  conveyed  to 
the  taverns  and  drawing-rooms  of  London.  In  taking 
Sir  Robert  Booth's  daughter  to  Church,  he  was  said  to 
have  committed  bigamy.  Even  while  he  was  in  the 
House  of  Commons  he  was  known  by  the  name  of  '  Will 
Bigamy  ; '  and  that  sobriquet  clung  to  him  ever  after- 
wards. Twenty  years  of  wholesome  domestic  intercourse 
with  his  first  wife  did  not  free  him  from  the  abominable 
imputation,  and  his  marriage  with  Miss  Clavering  revived 
the  calumny  in  a  new  form.  Fools  were  found  to  be- 
lieve that  he  had  married  her  during  Judith  Booth's  lifo 
and  that  their  union  had  been  concealed  for  several 
years  instead  of  a  few  months.  The  affair  with  Miss 
Culling  was  for  a  time  forgotten,  and  the  charge  pre- 
ferred against  the  keeper  of  the  queen's  conscience  was 
bigamy  of  a  much  more  recent  date. 


Loves  of  the  Laioyers.  79 

In  various  forms  this  ridiculous  accusation  enlivens 
the  squibs  of  the  pamphleteers  of  Queen  Anne's  reign. 
In  the  '  New  Atalantis '  Mrs.  Manley  certified  that  the 
fair  victim  was  first  persuaded  by  his  lordship's  sophistries 
to  regard  polygamy  as  accordant  with  moral  law.  Having 
thus  poisoned  her  understanding,  he  gratified  her  with  a 
form  of  marriage,  in  which  his  brother  Spencer,  in 
clerical  disguise,  acted  the  part  of  a  priest.  It  was  even 
suggested  that  the  bride  in  this  mock  marriage  was  the 
lawyer's  ward.  Never  squeamish  about  the  truth,  when 
he  could  gain  a  point  by  falsehood,  Swift  endorsed  the 
spiteful  fabrication,  and  in  the  Examiner,  pointing  at 
Lord  Cowper,  wrote — "  This  gentleman,  knowing  that 
marriage  fees  were  a  considerable  perquisite  to  the 
clergy,  found  out  a  way  of  improving  them  cent,  per 
cent,  for  the  benefit  of  the  Church.  His  invention  was 
to  marry  a  second  wife  while  the  first  was  alive  ;  con- 
vincing her  of  the  lawfulness  by  such  arguments  as  he 
did  not  doubt  would  make  others  follow  the  same 
example.  These  he  had  draiun  up  in  writing  with  inten- 
tion to  publish  for  the  general  good,  and  it  is  hoped  he 
may  now  have  leisure  to  finish  them."  It  is  possible  that 
the  words  in  italics  were  the  cause  of  Voltaire's  astound- 
ing statement :  "  Plusieurs  curieux  ont  encore  le  petit 
hvre  que  ce  Chancelier  composa  en  faveur  de  la  Polyg- 
amie."  On  this  point  Lord  Campbell,  confidently  advanc- 
ing an  opinion  which  can  scarcely  command  unanimous 
assent,  says,  "  The  fable  of  the '  Treatise '  is  evidently  taken 
from  the  panegyric  on  '  a  plurality  of  wives,'  which  Mrs. 
Manley  puts  into  the  mouth  of  Lord  Cowper,  in  a  speech 
supposed  to  be  addressed  by  Hernando  to  Lousia."  But 
whether  Voltaire  accepted  the  'New  Atalantis,'  or  the 
Examiner,  as  an  authority  for  the  statements  of  his  very 
laughable  passage,  it  is  scarcely  credible  that  he  believed 
himself  to  be  penning  the  truth.     The  most  reasonable 


80  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

explanation  of  the  matter  appears  to  be,  that  tickled  by 
Swift's  venomous  lines,  the  sarcastic  Frenchman  in  malice 
and  gaiety  adopted  them,  and  added  to  their  piquancy 
by  the  assurance  that  the  Chancellor's  book  was  not  only 
published,  but  was  preserved  by  connoisseurs  as  a 
literary  curiosity. 

Like  his  elder  brother,  the  Chancellor,  Spencer 
Cowper  married  at  an  early  age,  lived  to  wed  a  second 
wife,  and  was  accused  of  immorality  that  was  foreign  to 
his  nature.  The  offence  with  which  the  younger  Cowper 
was  charged,  created  so  wide  and  profound  a  sensation, 
and  gave  rise  to  such  a  memorable  trial,  that  the  reader 
will  like  to  glance  at  the  facts  of  the  case. 

Born  in  1669,  Spencer  Cowper  was  scarcely  of  age 
when  he  was  called  to  the  bar,  and  made  Comptroller  of 
the  Bridge  House  Estate.  The  office,  which  was  in  the 
gift  of  the  corporation  of  London,  provided  him  with  a 
good  income,  together  with  a  residence  in  the  Bridge 
House,  St.  Olave's,  Southwark,  and  brought  him  in  con- 
tact with  men  who  were  able  to  bring  him  briefs  or 
recommend  him  to  attorneys.  For  several  years  the  boy- 
barrister  was  thought  a  singularly  lucky  fellow.  His 
hospitable  house  was  brightened  by  a  young  and  lovely 
wife  (Pennington,  the  daughter  of  John  Goodeve),  and 
he  was  so  much  respected  in  his  locality  that  he  was 
made  a  justice  of  the  peace.  In  his  profession  he  was 
equally  fortunate  :  his  voice  was  often  heard  at  "West- 
minster and  on  the  Home  Circuit,  the  same  circuit  where 
his  brother  William  practised  and  his  family  interest 
lay.     He  found  many  clients. 

Envy  is  the  shadow  of  success ;  and  the  Cowpers 
were  watched  by  men  who  longed  to  ruin  them.  From 
the  day  when  they  armed  and  rode  forth  to  welcome  the 
Prince  of  Orange,  the  lads  had  been  notably  fortunate. 
Notwithstanding  his  reputation  for  immorality  William 


Loves  of  the  Lawyers.  81 

Cowper  had  sprung  into  lucrative  practice,  and  in  1695 
was  returned  to  Parliament  as  representative  for  Hartford, 
the  other  seat  for  the  borough  being  filled  by  his  father, 
Sir  William  Cowper. 

In  spite  of  their  comeliness  and  complaisant  manners, 
the  lightness  of  their  wit  and  the  prestige  of  their  success, 
Hertford  heard  murmurs  that  the  young  Cowpers  were 
too  lucky  by  half,  and  that  the  Cowper  interest  was 
dangerously  powerful  in  the  borough.  It  was  averred 
that  the  Cowpers  were  making  unfair  capital  out  of 
liberal  professions  :  and  when  the  Hertford  "Whigs  sent 
the  father  and  son  to  the  House  of  Commons,  the  van- 
quished party  cursed  in  a  breath  the  Dutch  usurper  and 
his  obsequious  followers. 

It  was.  resolved  to  damage  the  Cowpers  : — by  fair 
means  or  foul,  to  render  them  odious  in  their  native 
town. 

Ere  long  the  malcontents  found  a  good  cry. 

Scarcely  less  odious  to  the  Hertford  Tories  than  the 
Cowpers  themselves  was  an  influential  Quaker  of  the 
town,  named  Stout,  who  actively  supported  the  Cowper 
interest.  A  man  of  wealth  and  good  repute,  this  follower 
of  George  Fox  exerted  himself  enthusiastically  in  the 
election  contest  of  1695  :  and  in  acknowledgment  of  his 
services  the  Cowpers  honored  him  with  their  personal 
friendship.  Sir  William  Cowper  asked  him  to  dine  at 
Hertford  Castle — the  baronet's  country  residence  ;  Sir 
William's  sons  made  calls  on  his  wife  and  daughter.  Of 
course  these  attentions  from  Cowpers  to  '  the  Shaker ' 
were  offensive  to  the  Tory  magnates  of  the  place  :  and 
they  vented  their  indignation  in  whispers,  that  the  young 
men  never  entered  Stout's  house  without  kissing  his 
pretty  daughter. 

While  these  rumors  were  still  young,  Mr.  Stout  died 
leaving  considerable  property  to  his  widow,  and  to  his 


82   •  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

only  child — the  beauteous  Sarah;  and  after  his  death  the 
intercourse  between  the  two  families  became  yet  more 
close  and  cordial.  The  lawyers  advised  the  two  ladies 
about  the  management  of  their  property  :  and  the  baronet 
gave  them  invitations  to  his  London  House  in  Hatton 
Garden,  as  well  as  to  Hertford  Castle.  The  friendship 
had  disastrous  consequences.  Both  the  brothers  were 
very  fascinating  men — men,  moreover,  who  not  only  ex- 
celled in  the  art  of  pleasing,  but  who  also  habitually 
exercised  it.  From  custom,  inclination,  policy,  they  were 
very  kind  to  the  mother  and  daughter  ;  probably  paying 
the  latter  many  compliments  which  they  would  never  have 
uttered  had  they  been  single  men.  Coming  from  an  un- 
married man  the  speech  is  often  significant  of  love,  which 
on  the  lips  of  a  husband  is  but  the  language  of  courtesy. 
Bat,  unfortunately,  Miss  ('Mistress '  is  her  style  in  the 
report  of  a  famous  trial)  Sarah  Stout  fell  madly  in  love 
with  Spencer  Cowper  notwithstanding  the  impossibility 
of  marriage. 

Not  only  did  she  conceive  a  dangerous  fondness  for 
him,  but  she  openly  expressed  it — by  speech  and  letters. 
She  visited  him  in  the  Temple,  and  persecuted  him  with 
her  embarrassing  devotion  whenever  he  came  to  Hertford. 
It  was  a  trying  position  for  a  young  man  not  thirty 
years  of  age,  with  a  wife  to  whom  he  was  devotedly 
attached,  and  a  family  whose  political  influence  in  his 
native  town  might  be  hurt  by  publication  of  the  girl's 
folly.  Taking  his  elder  brother  into  his  confidence,  he 
asked  what  course  he  ought  to  pursue.  To  withdraw 
totally  and  abruptly  from  the  two  ladies,  would  be  cruel 
to  the  daughter,  insulting  to  the  mother;  moreover,  it 
would  give  rise  to  unpleasant  suspicions  and  prejudicial 
gossip  in  the  borough.  It  was  decided  that  Spencer 
must  repress  the  girl's  advances — must  see  her  less  fre- 
quently— and,  by  a  reserved   and  frigid   manner,  must 


Loves  of  the  Lawyers.  83 

compel  her  to  assume  an  appearance  of  womanly  dis- 
cretion.    But  the  plan  failed. 

At  the  opening  of  the  year  1699  she  invited  him  to 
take  up  his  quarters  in  her  mother's  house,  when  he 
came  to  Hertford  at  the  next  Spring  Assizes.  This  in- 
vitation he  declined,  saying  that  he  had  arranged  to  take 
his  brother's  customary  lodgings  in  the  house  of  Mr. 
Barefoot,  in  the  Market  Place,  but  with  manly  consider- 
ation he  promised  to  call  upon  her.  "  I  am  glad,"  Sarah 
wrote  to  him  on  March  5,  1699,  "  you  have  not  quite  for- 
got there  is  such  a  person  as  I  in  being  :  but  I  am  willing 
to  shut  my  eyes  and  not  see  anything  that  looks  like 
unkindness  in  you,  and  rather  content  myself  with  what 
excuses  you  are  pleased  to  make,  than  be  inquisitive  into 
what  I  must  not  know  :  I  am  sure  the  winter  has  been  too 
unpleasant  for  me  to  desire  the  continuance  of  it  :  and  I 
wish  you  were  to  endure  the  sharpness  of  it  but  for  one 
short  hour,  as  I  have  done  for  many  long  nights  and 
days,  and  then  I  believe  it  would  move  that  rocky  heart 
of  yours  that  can  be  so  thoughtless  of  me  as  you  are." 

On  Monday,  March  13,  following  the  date  of  the  words 
just  quoted,  Spencer  Cowper  rode  into  Hertford,  alighted 
at  Mrs.  Stout's  house,  and  dined  with  the  ladies.  Having 
left  the  house  after  dinner,  in  order  that  he  might  attend 
to  some  business,  he  returned  in  the  evening  and  supped 
with  the  two  women.  Supper  over,  Mrs.  Stout  retired 
for  the  night,  leaving  her  daughter  and  the  young  bar- 
rister together.  No  sooner  had  the  mother  left  the  room, 
than  a  distressing  scene  ensued. 

Unable  to  control  or  soothe  her,  Spencer  gently  divided 
the  clasp  of  her  hands,  and  having  freed  himself  from  her 
embrace,  hastened  from  the  room  and  abruptly  left  the 
house.  He  slept  at  his  lodgings  ;  and  the  next  morning 
he  was  horror-struck  on  hearing  that  Sarah  Stout's  body 
had  been  found  drowned  in  the  mill-stream  behind  her 


84  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

old  home.  That  catastrophe  had  actually  occurred. 
Scarcely  had  the  young  barrister  reached  the  Market 
Place,  when  the  miserable  girl  threw  herself  into  the 
stream  from  which  her  lifeless  body  was  picked  pn  the 
following  morning.  At  the  coroner's  inquest  which 
ensued,  Spencer  Cowper  gave  his  evidence  with  extreme 
caution,  withholding  every  fact  that  could  be  injurious  to 
Sarah's  reputation  ;  and  the  jury  returned  a  verdict  that 
the  deceased  gentlewoman  had  killed  herself  whilst  in  a 
state  of  insanity. 

In  deep  dejection  Spencer  Cowper  continued  the 
journey  of  the  circuit. 

But  the  excitement  of  the  public  was  not  allayed  by 
the  inquest  and  subsequent  funeral.  It  was  rumored 
that  it  was  no  case  of  self-murder,  but  a  case  of  murder 
by  the  barrister,  who  had  strangled  his  dishonored  victim, 
and  had  then  thrown  her  into  the  river.  Anxious  to 
save  their  •  sect  from  the  stigma  of  suicide  the  Quakers 
concurred  with  the  Tories  in  charging  the  young  man 
with  a  hideous  complication  of  crimes.  The  case  against 
Spencer  was  laid  before  Chief  Justice  Holt,  who  at  first 
dismissed  the  accusation  as  absurd,  but  was  afterwards 
induced  to  commit  the  suspected  man  for  trial  ;  and  in 
the  July  of  1699  the  charge  actually  came  before  a  jury 
at  the  Hertford  Assizes.  Four  prisoners — Spencer 
Cowper,  two  attorneys,  and  a  law-writer — were  placed 
in  the  dock  on  the  charge  of  murdering  Sarah  Stout. 

On  the  present  occasion  there  is  no  need  to  recapit- 
tilate  the  ridiculous  evidence  and  absurd  misconduct  of 
the  prosecution  in  this  trial;  though  criminal  lawyers 
who  wish  to  know  what  unfairness  and  irregularities  were 
permitted  in  such  inquiries  in  the  seventeenth  century 
cannot  do  better  than  to  peruse  the  full  report  of  the  pro  • 
ceedings,  which  may  be  found  in  every  comprehensive 
legal  library.     In  this  place   it  is  enough  to  say  that 


Loves  of  the  Lawyers.  85 

though  the  accusation  was  not  sustained  by  a  shadow  of 
legal  testimony,  the  prejudice  against  the  prisoners,  both 
on  the  part  of  a  certain  section  of  the  Hertford  residents 
and  the  presiding  judge,  Mr..  Baron  Hatsel,  was  such 
that  the  verdict  for  acquittal  was  a  disappointment  to 
many  who  heard  it  proclaimed  by  the  foreman  of  the 
jury.  Narcissus  Luttrell,  indeed,  says  that  the  verdict 
was  "to  the  satisfaction  of  the  auditors;"  but  in  this 
statement  the  diarist  was  unquestionably  wrong,  so  far 
as  the  promoters  of  the  prosecution  were  concerned. 
Instead  of  accepting  the  decision  without  demur,  fliey 
attempted  to  put  the  prisoners  again  on  their  trial  by 
the  obsolete  process  of  "  appeal  of  murder;  but  this 
endeavor  proving  abortive,  the  case  was  disposed  of, 
and  the  prisoners'  minds  set  at  rest. 

The  barrister  who  was  thus  tried  on  a  capital  charge, 
and  narrowly  escaped  a  sentence  that  would  have  con- 
signed him  to  an  ignominious  death,  resumed  his  practice 
in  the  law  courts,  sat  in  the  House  of  Commons  and 
rose  to  be  a  judge  in  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas.  It 
is  said  that  ho  "presided  on  many  trials  for  murder; 
ever  cautious  and  mercifully  'inclined — remembering  the 
great  peril  which  he  himself  had  undergone." 

The  same  writer  who  aspersed  Somers  with  her  un- 
chaste thoughts,  and  reiterated  the  charge  of  bigamy 
against  Lord  Chancellor  Cowper,  did  not  omit  to  give  a 
false  and  malicious  version  to  the  incidents  which  had 
acutely  wounded  the  fine  sensibilities  of  the  younger 
Cowper.  But  enough  notice  has  been  taken  of  the 
'  New  Atalantis '  in  this  chapter.  To  that  repulsive 
book  we  refer  those  readers  who  may  wish  to  peruse  Mrs. 
Manley's  account  of  Sarah  Stout's  death. 

A  distorted  tradition  of  Sarah  Stout's  tragic  end,  and  ■ 
of  Lord  Cowper's  imputed  bigamy,  was  contributed  to 
an  early  number  of  the  '  European  '  by  a  clerical  autho- 


86  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

rity — the  Rev.  J.  Hinton,  Rector  of  Alderton,  in  North- 
amptonshire. "  Mrs.  Sarah  Stout,"  says  the  writer, 
"whose  death  was  charged  upon  Spencer  Cowper,  was 
strangled  accidentally  by  drawing  the  steenkirk  too 
tight  upon  her  neck,  as  she,  with  four  or  five  young 
persons,  were  at  a  game  of  romp  upon  the  staircase; 
but  it  was  not  done  by  Mr.  Cowper,  though  one  of  the 
company.  Mrs.  Clavering,  Lord  Chancellor  Cowper's 
second  wife,  whom  he  married  during  the  life  of  his 
first,  was  there  too;  they  were  so  confounded  with  the 
accident,  that  they  foolishly  resolved  to  throw  her  into 
the  water,  thinking  it  would  pass  that  she  had  drowned 
herself."  This  charming  paragraph  illustrates  the  vi- 
tality of  scandal,  and  at  the  same  time  shows  how 
ludicrously  rumor  and  tradition  mistell  stories  in  the 
face  of  evidence. 

Spencer  Cowper's  second  son,  the  Rev.  John  Cowper, 
D.D.,  was  the  father  of  William  Cowper,  the  poet. 


CHAPTER  XL 

EARLY   MAERIAGES. 


NOTWITHSTANDING  his  illustrious  descent,  Simon 
Harcourt  raised  himself  to  the  woolsack  by  his 
own  exertions,  and  was  in  no  degree  indebted  to  power- 
ful relatives  for  his  elevation.  The  son  of  a  knight, 
whose  loyalty  to  the  House  of  Stuart  had  impoverished 
his  estate,  he  spent  his  student-days  at  Pembroke,  Oxford, 
nnd  the  Inner  Temple,  in  resolute  labor,  and  with  few 
indulgences.  His  father  could  make  him  but  a  slender 
allowance;  and  when  he  assumed  the  gown  of  a  barrister, 
the  future  Chancellor,  like  Erskine  in  after  years,  was 


Loves  of  the  Lawyers.  87 

spurred  to  industry  by  the  voices  of  his  wife  and  children. 
Whilst  he  was  still  an  undergraduate  of  the  university,  he 
fell  in  love  with  Rebecca  Clark,  daughter  of  a  pious  man, 
of  whose  vocation  the  modern  peerages  are  ashamed.  Sir 
Philip  Harcourt  (the  Chancellor's  father)  in  spite  of  hfs 
loyalty  quarrelled  with  the  Established  Church,  and  joined 
the  Presbyterians:  and  Thomas  Clark  was  his  Presby- 
terian chaplain,  secretary,  and  confidential  servant.  Great 
was  Sir  Philip's  wrath  on  learning  that  his  boy  had  not 
only  fallen  in  love  with  Rebecca  Clark,  but  had  married 
her  privately.  It  is  probable  that  the  event  lowered  the 
worthy  knight's  esteem  for  the  Presbyterian  system;  but 
as  anger  could  not  cut  the  nuptial  bond,  the  father  re- 
lented— gave  the  young  people  all  the  assistance  he  could, 
and  hoped  that  they  would  live  long  without  repenting 
their  folly.  The  match  turned  out  far  better  than  the 
old  knight  feared.  Taking  his  humble  bride  to  modest 
chambers,  young  Harcourt  applied  sedulously  to  the  study 
of  the  law;  and  his  industry  was  rewarded  by  success, 
and  by  the  gratitude  of  a  dutiful  wife.  In  unbroken 
happiness  they  lived  together  for  a  succession  of  years, 
and  their  union  was  fruitful  of  children. 

Harcourt  fared  better  with  his  love-match  than  Ser- 
geant Hill  with  his  heiress,  Miss  Medlycott  of  Cottingham, 
Northamptonshire.  On  the  morning  of  his  wedding  the 
eccentric  sergeant,  having  altogether  forgotten  his  most 
important  engagement  for  the  day,  received  his  clients  in 
chambers  after  his  usual  practice,  and  remained  busy  with 
professional  cares  until  a  band  of  devoted  friends  forcibly 
carried  him  to  the  church,  where  his  bride  had  been 
waiting  for  him  more  than  an  hour.  The  ceremony  hav- 
ing been  duly  performed,  he  hastened  back  to  his  cham- 
bers, to  be  present  at  a  consultation.  Notwithstanding 
her  sincere  affection  for  him,  the  lady  proved  but  an  in- 
different wife  to  the  black-letter  lawyer.     Empowered  by 


88  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

Act  of  Parliament  to  retain  her  maiden-name  after  mar- 
riage, she  showed  her  disesteem  for  her  husband's 
patronymic  by  her  mode  of  exercising  the  privilege  secured 
to  her  by  special  law;  and  many  a  time  the  sergeant  in- 
dignantly insisted  that  she  should  use  his  name  in  her 
signatures.  "My  name  is  Hill,  madam;  my  father's 
name  was  Hill,  madam;  all  the  Hills  have  been  named 

Hill,  madam;  Hill  is  a  good  name — and  by ,  madam, 

you  shall  use  it."  On  other  matters  he  was  more  com- 
pliant— humoring  her  old-maidish  fancies  in  a  most 
docile  and  conciliating  manner.  Curiously  neat  and 
orderly,  Mrs.  Medlycott  took  great  pride  in  the  faultless- 
ness  of  her  domestic  arrangements,  so  far  as  cleanliness 
and  precise  order  were  concerned.  To  maintain  the 
whiteness  of  the  pipe-clayed  steps  before  the  front  door 
of  her  Bedford  Square  mansion  was  a  chief  object  of  her 
existence;  and  to  gratify  her  in  this  particular,  Sergeant 
Hill  use  daily  to  leave  his  premises  by  the  kitchen  steps. 
Having  outlived  the  lady,  Hill  observed  to  a  friend  who 
was  condoling  with  him  on  his  recent  bereavement,  "  Ay, 
my  poor  wife  is  gone !  She  was  a  good  sort  of  woman 
— in  her  way  a  very  good  sort  of  woman.  I  do  honestly 
declare  my  belief  that  in  her  way  she  had  no  equal.  But 
— but — I'll  tell  you  something  in  confidence.  If  ever  I 
marry  again,  /  won't  marry  merely  for  money."  The 
learned  sergeant  died  in  his  ninety-third  year  without 
having  made  a  second  marriage. 

Like  Harcourt,  John  Scott  married  under  circum- 
stances that  called  forth  many  warm  expressions  of  cen- 
sure; and  like  Harcourt,  he,  in  after  life,  reflected  on  his 
imprudent  marriage  as  one  of  the  most  fortunate  steps  of 
his  earlier  career.  The  romance  of  the  law  contains  few 
more  pleasant  episodes  than  the  story  of  handsome  Jack 
Scott's  elopement  with  Bessie  Surtees.  There  is  no  need 
to  tell  -in  detail  how  the  comely  Oxford  scholar  danced 


Loves  of  the  Lawyers.  89 

with  the  banker's  daughter  at  the  Newcastle  assemblies; 
how  his  suit  was  at  first  recognised  by  the  girl's  parents, 
although  the  Scotts  were  but  rich  'fitters,'  whereas 
Aubone  Surtees,  Esquire,  was  a  banker  and  gentleman  of 
honorable  descent;  how,  on  the  appearance  of  an  aged 
and  patrician  suitor  for  Bessie's  hand,  papa  and  mamma 
told  Jack  Scott  not  to  presume  on  their  condescension,  and 
counseled  Bessie  to  throw  her  lover  over  and  become  the 
lady  of  Sir  "William  Blackett;  how  Bessie  was  faithful, 
and  Jack  was  urgent ;  how  they  had  secret  interviews  on 
Tyne-side  and  in  London,  meeting  clandestinely  on  horse- 
back and  on  foot,  corresponding  privately  by  letters  and 
confidential  messengers;  how,  eventually,  the  lovers,  to 
the  consternation  of  'good  society'  in  Newcastle,  were 
made  husband  and  wife  at  Blackshiels,  North  Britain. 
Who  is  ignorant  of  the  story  ?  Does  not  every  visitor 
to  Newcastle  pause  before  an  old  house  in  Sandhill,  and 
look  up  at  the  blue  pane  which  marks  the  window  from 
which  Bessie  descended  into  her  lover's  arms  ? 

Jack  and  Bessie  were  not  punished  with  even  that  brief 
period  of  suffering  and  uncertainty  which  conscientious 
novelists  are  accustomed,  for  the  sake  of  social  morals,  to 
assign  to  run-away  lovers  before  the  merciful  guardian  or 
tender  parent  promises  forgiveness  and  a  liberal  allowance, 
paid  in  quarterly  installments.  In  his  old  age  Eldon  used 
to  maintain  that  their  plight  was  very  pitiable  on  the 
third  morning  after  their  rash  union.  "  Our  funds  were 
exhausted:  we  had  not  a  home  to  go  to,  and  we  knew 
not  whether  our  friends  would  ever  speak  to  us  again." 
.In  this  strain  ran  the  veteran's  story,  which,  like  all 
other  anecdotes  from  the  same  source,  must  be  received 
with  caution.  But  even  the  old  peer,  ever  ready  to 
exaggerate  his  early  difficulties,  had  not  enough  effrontery 
to  represent  that  their  dejection  lasted  more  than  three 
days.     The  fathers  of  the  bride  and  bridegroom  soon  met 


90  A  Booh  about  Laivyers. 

and  came  to  terms,  and  with  the  beginning  of  the  new 
year  Bessie  Scott  was  living  in  New  Inn  Hall,  Oxford, 
whilst  her  husband  read  Vinerian  Lectures,  and  presided 
over  that  scholastic  house.  The  position  of  Scott  at  this 
time*  was  very  singular.  He  was  acting  as  substitute 
for  Sir  Robert  Chambers,  the  principal  of  New  Inn  Hall 
and  Vinerian  Professor  of  Law,  who  contrived  to  hold  his 
university  preferments,  whilst  he  discharged  the  duties  of 
a  judge  in  India.  To  give  an  honest  color  to  this  inde- 
fensible arrangement,  it  was  provided  that  the  lectures 
read  from  the  Vinerian  Chair  should  actually  be  written  by 
the  Professor,  although  they  were  delivered  by  deputy. 
Scott,  therefore,  as  the  Professor's  mouth-piece,  on  a 
salary  of  £60  a  year,  with  free  quarters  in  the  Princi- 
pal's house,  was  merely  required  to  read  a  series  of 
treatises  sent  to  him  by  the  absent  teacher.  The  law- 
professor,"  the  ex-Chancellor  used  to  relate  with  true 
Eldonian  humor  and  fancy — "  sent  me  the  first  lecture, 
which  I  had  to  read  immediately  to  the  students,  and 
which  I  began  without  knowing  a  single  word  that  was 
in  it.  It  was  upon  the  statute  (4  and  5  P.  and  M.  c.  8), 
'of  young  men  running  away  with  maidens.'  Fancy  me 
reading,  with  about  140  boys  and  young  men  all  giggling 
at  the  Professor !  Such  a  tittering  audience  no  one  ever 
had."  If  this  incident  really  occurred  on  the  occasion  of 
his  'first  reading,'  the  laughter  must  have  been  inex- 
tinguishable; for,  of  course,  Jack  Scott's  run-away  mar- 
riage had  made  much  gossip  in  Oxford  Common  Rooms, 
and  the  singular  loveliness  of  his  girlish  wife  (described 
by  an  eye-witness  as  being  "so  very  young  as  to  give  the 
impression  of  childhood,")  stirred  the  heart  of  every 
undergraduate  who  met  her  in  High  Street. 

There  is  no  harm  done  by  laughter  at  the  old  Chan- 
cellor's romantic  fictions  about  the  poverty  which  he  and 
his  Bessie  encountered,  hand  in  hand,  at  the  outset  of 


Loves  of  tlie  Lawyers.  91 

life  ;  for  the  laughter  blinds  no  one  to  the  genuine  affec- 
tion and  wholesome  honesty  of  the  young  husband  and 
wife.  One  has  reason  to  wish  that  marriages  such  as 
theirs  were  more  frequent  amongst  lawyers  in  these  osten- 
tatious days.  At  present  the  young  barrister,  who  mar- 
ries before  he  has  a  clear  fifteen  hundred  a  year,  is  charged 
with  reckless  imprudence  ;  and  unless  his  wife  is  a  woman 
of  fortune,  or  he  is  able  to  settle  a  heavy  sum  of  money 
upon  her,  his  anxious  friends  terrify  him  with  pictures  of 
want  and  sorrow  stored  up  for  him  in  the  future.  Society 
will  not  let  him  live  after  the  fashion  of  'juniors'  eighty 
or  a  hundred  years  since.  He  must  maintain  two  estab- 
lishments— his  chambers  for  business,  his  house  in  the 
west-end  c  f  town  for  his  wife.  Moreover,  the  lady  must 
have  a  brougham  and  liberal  pin  money,  or  four  or  five 
domestic  servants  and  a  drawing-room  well  furnished  with 
works  of  art  and  costly  decorations.  They  must  give 
state  dinners  and  three  or  four  routs  every  season;  and  in 
all  other  matters  their  mode  of  life  must  be,  or  seem  to 
be,  that  of  the  uper  ten  thousand.  Either  they  must  live 
in  this  style,  or  be  pushed  aside  and  forgotten.  The 
choice  for  them  lies  between  very  expensive  society  or 
none  at  all — that  is  to  say,  none  at  all  amongst  the  rising 
members  of  the  legal  profession,  and  the  sort  of  people 
with  whom  young  barristers,  from  prudential  motives, 
wish  to  form  acquaintance.  Doubtless  many  a  fair  reader 
of  this  page  is  already  smiling  at  the  writer's  simplicity, 
and  is  saying  to  herself,  "Here  is  one  of  the  advocates  of 
marriage  on  three  hundred  a  year." 

But  this  writer  is  not  going  to  advocate  marriage  on 
that  or  any  other  particular  sum.  From  personal  experi- 
ence he  knows  what  comfort  a  married  man  may  have  for 
an  outlay  of  three  or  four  hundred  per  annum ;  and  from 
personal  observation  he  knows  what  privations  and  igno- 
minious poverty   are   endured  by  unmarried  men  who 


92  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

spend  twice  the  larger  of  those  sums  on  chamber-and-club 
life.  He  knows  that  there  are  men  who  shiver  at  the  bare 
thought  of  losing  caste  by  marriage  with  a  portionless 
girl,  whilst  they  are  complacently  leading  the  life  which, 
in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  terminates  in  the  worst  form  of 
social  degradation — matrimony  where  the  husband  blushes 
for  his  wife's  early  history,  and  dares  not  tell  his  own 
children  the  date  of  his  marriage  certificate.  If  it  were 
his  pleasure  he  could  speak  sad  truths  about  the  bachelor 
of  modest  income,  who  is  rich  enough  to  keep  his  name 
on  the  books  of  two  fashionable  clubs,  to  live  in  a  good 
quarter  of  London,  and  to  visit  annually  continental 
capitals,  but  far  too  poor  to  think  of  incurring  the  re- 
sponsibilities of  marriage.  It  could  be  demonstrated  that 
in  a  great  majority  of  instances  this  wary,  prudent,  selfish 
gentleman,  instead  of  being  the  social  success  which  many 
simple  people  believe  him,  is  a  signal  and  most  miserable 
failure  ;  that  instead  of  pursuing  a  career  of  various  en- 
joyments and  keen  excitements,  he  is  a  martyr  to  ennui, 
bored  by  the  monotony  of  an  objectless  existence,  utterly 
weary  of  the  splendid  clubs,  in  which  he  is  presumed  by 
unsophisticated  admirers  to  find  an  ample  compensation 
for  want  of  household  comfort  and  domestic  affection  : 
that  as  soon  as  he  has  numbered  forty  years,  he  finds  the 
roll  of  his  friends  and  cordial  acquaintances  diminish,  and 
is  compelled  to  retire  before  younger  men,  who  snatch 
from  his  grasp  the  prizes  of  social  rivalry  ;  and  that,  as 
each  succeeding  lustre  passes,  he  finds  the  chain  of  his 
secret  disappointments  and  embarrassments  more  galling 
and  heavy. 

It  is  not  a  question  of  marriage  on  three  hundred  a 
year  without  prospects,  but  a  marriage  on  five  or  six  hun- 
dred a  year  with  good  expectations.  In  the  Inns  of 
Court  there  are,  at  the  present  time,  scores  of  clever,  in- 
dustrious fine-hearted  gentlemen  who  have  sure  incomes 


Loves  of  the  Lawyers.  93 

of  three  or  fourliundred  pounds  per  annum.  In  Tyburnia 
and  Kensington  there  is  an  equal  number  of  young  gen- 
tlewomen with  incomes  varying  between  £150  and  £300  a 
year.  These  men  and  women  see  each  other  at  balls  and 
dinners,  in  the  parks  and  at  theatres  ;  the  ladies  would 
not  dislike  to  be  wives,  the  men  are  longing  to  be  hus- 
bands. But  that  hideous  tyrant,  social  opinion,  bids  them 
avoid  marriage. 

In  Lord  Eldon's  time  tne  case  was  otherwise.  Society 
saw  nothing  singular  or  reprehensible  in  his  conduct  when 
he  brought  Bessie  to  live  in  the  little  house  in  Cursitor 
Street.  No  one  sneered  at  the  young  law-student,  whose 
home  was  a  little  den  in  a  dingy  thoroughfare.  At  a 
later  date,  the  rising  junior,  whose  wife  lived  over  his 
business  chambers  in  Carey  Street,  was  the  object  of  no 
unkind  criticism  because  his  domestic  arrangements  were 
inexpensive,  and  almost  frugal.  Had  his  success  been 
tardy  instead  of  quick  and  decisive,  and  had  circumstan- 
ces compelled  him  to  live  under  the  shadow  of  Lincoln's 
Inn  wall  for  thirty  years  on  a  narrow  income,  he  would 
not  on  that  account  have  suffered  from  a  single  dispara- 
ging criticism.  Amongst  his  neighbors  in  adjacent  streets, 
and  within  the  boundaries  of  his  Inn,  he  would  have  found 
society  for  himself  and  wife,  and  playmates  for  his  chil- 
dren. Good  fortune  coming  in  full  strong  flood,  he  was 
not  compelled  to  greatly  change  his  plan  of  existence. 
Even  in  those  days,  when  costly  ostentation  characterized 
aristocratic  society — he  was  permitted  to  live  modestly — 
and  lay  the  foundation  of  that  great  property  which  he 
transmitted  to  his  ennobled  descendants. 

When  satire  has  done  its  worst  with  the  miserly  pro- 
pensities of  the  great  lawyer  and  his  wife,  their  long 
f amiliar  intercourse  exhibits  a  wealth  of  fine  human  affec- 
tion and  genuine  poetry  which  sarcasm  cannot  touch. 
Often  as  he  had  occasion  to  regret  Lady  Eldon's  peculiari- 


94  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

ties — the  stinginess  which  made  her  grudge  the  money 
paid  for  a  fish  or  a  basket  of  fruit ;  the  nervous  repug- 
nance to  society,  which  greatly  diminished  his  popularity; 
and  the  taste  for  solitude  and  silence  which  marked  her 
painfully  towards  the  close  of  her  life — the  Chancellor 
never  even  hinted  to  her  his  dissatisfaction.  When  their 
eldest  daughter,  following  her  mother's  example,  married 
without  the  permission  of  her  parents,  it  was  suggested 
to  Lord  Eldon  that  her  ladyship  ought  to  take  better  care 
of  her  younger  daughter,  Lady  Frances,  and  entering 
society  should  play  the  part  of  a  vigilant  chaperon.  The 
counsel  was  judicious  ;  but  the  Chancellor  declined  to  act 
upon  it,  saying, — "  When  she  was  young  and  beautiful, 
she  gave  up  everything  for  me.  What  she  is,  I  have  made 
her ;  and  I  cannot  now  bring  myself  to  compel  her  incli- 
nations. Our  marriage  prevented  her  mixing  in  soc^ty 
when  it  afforded  her  pleasure  ;  it  appears  to  give  pain 
now,  and  why  should  I  interpose  ?"  In  his  old  age,  when 
she  was  dead,  he  visited  his  estate  in  Durham,  but  could 
not  find  heart  to  cross  the  Tyne  bridge  and  look  at  the 
old  house  from  which  he  took  her  in  the  bloom  and  ten- 
derness of  her  girlhood.  An  urgent  invitation  to  visit 
Newcastle  drew  from  him  the  reply — "  I  know  my  fellow- 
townsmen  complain  of  my  not  coming  to  see  them  ;  but 
how  can  I  pass  that  bridge  f"  After  a  pause,  he  added, 
"  Poor  Bessie !  if  ever  there  was  an  angel  on  earth  she 
was  one.  The  only  reparation  which  one  man  can  make 
to  another  for  running  away  with  his  daughter,  is  to  be 
exemplary  in  his  conduct  towards  her." 

In  pecuniary  affairs  not  less  prudent  than  his  brother, 
Lord  Stowell  in  matters  of  sentiment  was  capable  of  in- 
discretion. In  the  long  list  of  legal  loves  there  are  not 
many  episodes  more  truly  ridiculous  than  the  story  of  the 
older  Scott's  second  marriage.  On  April  10,  1813,  the 
decorous  Sir  William  Scott,  and  Louisa  Catharine,  widow 


Loves  of  the  Laiuyers.  95 

of  John,  Marquis  of  Sligo,  and  daughter  of  Admiral  Lord 
Howe,  were  united  in  the  bonds  of  holy  wedlock,  to  the 
infinite  amusement  of  the  world  of  fashion,  and  to  the 
speedy  humiliation  of  the  bridegroom.  So  incensed  was 
Lord  Eldon  at  his  brother's  folly,  that  he  refused  to  ap- 
pear at  the  wedding  ;  and  certainly  the  Chancellor's  dis- 
pleasure was  not  without  reason,  for  the  notorious  ab- 
surdity of  the  affair  brought  ridicule  on  the  whole  of  the 
Scott  family  connexion.  The  happy  couple  met  for  the 
first  time  in  the  Old  Bailey,  when  Sir  William  Scott  and 
Lord  Ellenborough-  presided  at  the  trial  of  the  mar- 
chioness's son,  the  young  Marquis  of  Sligo,  who  had  in- 
curred the  anger  of  the  law  by  luring  into  his  yacht,  in 
Mediterranean  waters,  two  of  the  king's  seamen.  Through- 
out the  hearing  of  that  cause  celebre,  the  marchioness  sat 
in  the  fetid  court  of  the  Old  Bailey,  in  the  hope  that  her 
presence  might  rouse  amongst  the  jury  or  in  the  bench 
feelings  favorable  to  her  son.  This  hope  was  disappointed. 
The  verdict  having  been  given  against  the  young  peer, 
he  was  ordered  to  pay  a  fine  of  £5000,  and  undergo  four 
months'  incarceration  in  Newgate,  and — worse  than  fine 
and  imprisonment — was  compelled  to  listen  to  a  parental 
address  from  Sir  William  Scott  on  the  duties  and  respon- 
sibilities of  men  of  high  station.  Either  under  the  in- 
fluence of  sincere  admiration  for  the  judge,  or  impelled 
by  desire  for  vengeance  on  the  man  who  had  presumed 
to  lecture  her  son  in  a  court  of  justice,  the  marchioness 
wrote  a  few  hasty  words  of  thanks  to  Sir  William  Scott 
for  his  salutary  exhortation  to  her  boy.  She  even  went 
so  far  as  to  say  that  she  wished  the  erring  marquis  could 
always  have  so  wise  a  counsellor  at  his  side.  This  com- 
munication was  made  upon  a  slip  of  paper,  which  the 
writer  sent  to  the  judge  by  an  usher  of  the  court.  Sir 
William  read  the  note  as  he  sat  on  the  bench,  and  having 
looked  towards  the  fair  scribe,  he  received  from  her  a 


96  A   Book  about  Lawytrs. 

glance  and  smile  that  were  fruitful  of  much  misery  to  him. 
Within  four  months  the  courteous  Sir  William  Scott  was 
tied  fast  to  a  beautiful,  shrill,  voluble  termagant,  who  ex- 
ercised marvellous  ingenuity  in  rendering  him  wretched 
and  contemptible.  Reared  in  a  stately  school  of  old-world 
politeness,  the  unhappy  man  was  a  model  of  decorum  and 
urbanity.  He  took  reasonable  pride  in  the  perfection  of 
his  tone  and  manner  ;  and  the  marchioness — whose  nialice 
did  not  lack  cleverness — was  never  more  happy  than  when 
she  was  gravely  expostulating  with  him,  in  the  presence 
of  numerous  auditors,  on  his  lamentable  want  of  style, 
tact,  and  gentlemanlike  bearing.  It  is  said  that,  like  Coke 
and  Holt  under  similar  circumstances,  Sir  William  pre- 
ferred the  quietude  of  his  chambers  to  the  society  of  an 
unruly  wife,  and  that  in  the  cellar  of  his  Inn  he  sought 
compensation  for  the  indignities  and  sufferings  which  he 
endured  at  home.  Fifty  years  since  the  crusted  port  of 
the  Middle  Temple  could  soothe  the  heart  at  night,  with- 
out paining  the  head  in  the  morning. 


PART  m   . 

MONEY.      . 

HI 

CHAPTER  XII. 

FEES  TO   COUNSEL. 

FROM  time  immemorial  popular  satire  has  been  equally- 
ready  to  fix  the  shame  of  avarice  upon  Divinity 
Physic,  and  Law ;  and  it  cannot  be  denied  that  in  this 
matter  the  sarcasms  of  the  multitude  are  often  sustained 
by  the  indisputable  evidence  of  history.  The  greed  of 
the  clergy  for  tithes  and  dues  is  not  more  widely  pro- 
verbial than  the  doctor's  thirst  for  fees,  or  the  advocate's 
readiness  to  support  injustice  for  the  sake  of  gain.  Of 
Guyllyam  of  Harseley,  physician  to  Charles  VI.  of  France, 
Froissart  says,  "  All  his  dayes  he  was  one  of  the  greatest 
nygardes  that  ever  was  ;"  and  the  chronicler  adds,  "  With 
this  rodde  lightly  all  physicians  are  beaten."  In  his  ad- 
dress to  the  sergeants  who  were  called  soon  after  his  ele- 
vation to  the  Marble  Chair,  the  Lord  Keeper  Puckering, 
directing  attention  to  the  grasping  habits  which  too  fre- 
quently disgraced  the  leaders  of  the  bar,  observed  :  "  I 
am  to  exhort  you  also  not  to  embrace  multitude  of  causes, 
or  to  undertake  more  places  of  hearing  causes  than  you 
are  well  able  to  consider  of  or  perform,  lest  thereby  you 
either  disappoint  your  clients  when  their  causes  be  heard, 
or  come  unprovided,  or  depart  when  their  causes  be  in 
5 


98  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

hearing.  For  it  is  all  one  not  to  come,  as  either  to  come 
unprovided,  or  depart  before  it  be  ended  "  Notwithstand- 
ing Lingard's  able  defence  of  the  Cardinal,  scholars  are 
still  generally  of  opinion  that  Beaufort — the  Chancellor 
who  lent  money  on  the  king's  crown,  the  bishop  who  sold 
the  Pope's  soldiers  for  a  thousand  marks — is  a  notable 
instance  of  the  union  of  legal  covetousness  and  ecclesi- ' 
astical  greed. 

The  many  causes  which  affect  the  value  of  money  in 
different  ages  create  infinite  perplexity  for  the  antiquar- 
ian who  wishes  to  estimate  the  prosperity  of  the  bar  in 
past  times  ;  but  the  few  disjointed  data,  that  can  be 
gathered  from  old  records,  create  an  impression  that  in 
the  fourteenth,  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  the  ordi- 
nary fees  of  eminent  counsel  were  by  no  means  exorbitant, 
although  fortunate  practitioners  could  make  large  incomes. 

Dugdale's  'Baronage'  describes  with  delightful  quaint- 
ness  "William  de  Beauch  amp's  interview  with  his  lawyers 
when  that  noble  (on  the  death  of  John  Hastings,  Earl  of 
Pembroke,  temp.  Richard  II.,  without  issue),  claimed  the 
earl's  estates  under  an  entail,  in  opposition  to  Edward 
Hastings,  the  earl's  heir-male  of  the  half-blood.  "  Beau- 
champ,"  says  Dugdale,  "  invited  his  learned  counsel  to 
his  house  in  Paternoster  Row,  in  the  City  of  London  ; 
amongst  whom  were  Robert  Charlton  (then  a  judge), 
William  Pinchbek,  William  Branchesley,  and  John  Cates- 
by  (all  learned  lawyers) ;  and  after  dinner,  coming  out  of 
his  chapel,  in  an  angry  mood,  threw  to  each  of  them  a 
piece  of  gold,  and  said,  '  Sirs,  I  desire  you  forthwith  to 
tell  me  whether  I  have  any  right  or  title  to  Hastings' 
lordship  and  lands.'  Whereupon  Pinchbek  stood  up  (the 
rest  being  silent,  fearing  that  he  suspected  them),  and 
said,  'No  man  here  nor  in  England  dare  say  that  you 
have  any  right  in  them,  except  Hastings  do  quit  his  claim 
therein ;  and  should  he  do  it,  being  now  under  age,  it 


Money.  -  99 

would  be  of  no  validitie.'  "  Had  Charlton,  the  Chief  Jus- 
tice of  the  Common  Pleas,  taken  gold  for  his  opinion  on 
a  case  put  before  him  in  his  judicial  character,  he  would 
have  violated  his  judicial  oath.  But  in  the  earl's  house 
in  Paternoster  Row  he  was  merely  a  counsellor  learned  in 
the  law,  not  a  judge.  Manifest  perils  attend  a  system 
which  permits  a  judge  in  his  private  character  to  give 
legal  opinions  concerning  causes  on  which  he  may  be  re- 
quired to  give  judgment  from  the  bench  ;  but  notwith- 
standing those  perils,  there  is  no  reason  for  thinking  that 
Charlton  on  this  occasion  either  broke  law  or  etiquette. 
The  fair  inference  from  the  matter  is,  that  in  the  closing 
years  of  the  fourteenth  century  judges  were  permitted  to 
give  opinions  for  money  to  their  private  clients,  although 
they  were  forbidden  to  take  gold  or  silver  from  any  per- 
son having  "  plea  or  process  hanging  before  them." 

In  the  year  of  our  Lord  1500  the  corporation  of  Can- 
terbury paid  for  advice  regarding  their  civic  interests 
3s.  4td.  to  each  of  three  sergeants,  and  gave  the  Recorder 
of  London  6s.  Sd.  as  a  retaining-fee.  Five  years  later, 
Mr.  Serjeant  Wood  received  a  fee  of  10s.  from  the  Gold- 
smiths' Company  ;  and  it  may  be  fairly  assumed,  that  so 
important  and  wealthy  a  body  paid  the  sergeant  on  a 
liberal  scale.  In  the  sixteenth  century  it  was,  and  for 
several  generations  had  been,  customary  for  clients  to 
provide  food  and  drink  for  their  counsel.  Mr.  Foss  gives 
his  readers  the  following  list  of  items,  taken  from  a  bill 
of  costs,  made  in  the  reign  of  Edward  IV.  : — 

s.  d. 
For  a  breakfast  at  Westminster  spent  on  our  counsel.  1  6 
To  another  time  for  boat-hire  in  and  out,  and  a 

breakfast  for  two  days 16 

In  like  manner  the  accountant  of  St.  Margaret's,  West- 
minster, entered  in  the  parish  books,    "Also,    paid  to 


100  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

Roger  Fylpott,  learned  in  the  law,  for  his  counsel  given, 
3s.  Sd.,  with  4d.  for  his  dinner." 

A  yet  more  remarkable  custom  was  that  which  enabled 
clients  to  hire  counsel  to  plead  for  them  at  certain 
places,  for  a  given  time,  in  whatever  causes  their  elo- 
quence might  be  required.  There  still  exists  the  record 
of  an  agreement  by  which,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VII. , 
Sergeant  Yaxley  bound  himself  to  attend  the  assizes  at 
York,  Nottingham  and  Derby,  and  speak  in  court  at 
each  of  those  places,  whenever  his  client,  Sir  Robert 
Plumpton — "that  perpetual  and  always  unfortunate 
litigant,"  as  he  is  called  by  Sergeant  Manning — required 
him  to  do  so.  This  interesting  document  runs  thus — 
"  This  bill,  indented  at  London  the  18th  day  of  July,  the 
16tn  yeare  of  the  reigne  of  King  Henry  the  7th,  wit- 
nesseth  that  John  Yaxley,  Sergeant-at-Law,  shall  be  at 
the  next  assizes  to  be  holden  at  York,  Nottin.,  and  Derb., 
if  they  be  holden  and  kept,  and  there  to  be  of  council 
with  Sir  Robert  Plumpton,  knight,  such  assizes  and 
actions  as  the  said  Sir  Robert  shall  require  the  said 
John  Yaxley,  for  the  which  premises,  as  well  as  for  his 
costs  and  his  labours,  John  Pulan,  gentleman,  bindeth  him 
by  thease  presents  to  content  and  pay  to  the  said  John 
Yaxley  40  marks  sterling  at  the  feast  of  the  Nativetie 
of  our  Lady  next  coming,  or  within  eight  days  next 
following,  with  5  li  paid  aforelmnd,  parcell  of  paiment  of 
the  said  40  marks.  Provided  alway  that  if  the  said 
John  Yaxley  have  knowledg  and  warning  only  to  cum 
to  Nottin.  and  Derby,  then  the  said  John  Yaxley  is 
agread  by  these  presents  to  take  only  xv  li  besides  the  5 
li  aforesaid.  Provided  alwaies  that  if  the  said  John 
Yaxley  have  knowledg  and  warning  to  take  no  labour  in 
this  matter,  then  he  to  reteine  and  hold  the  said  5  li 
resaived  for  his  good  will  and  labour.  In  witness  hereof, 
the  said  John  Yaxley,  serjeant,  to  the  part  of  this  inden- 


Money.  101 

ture  remaining  with  the  said  John  Pulan  have  put  his 
seale  the  day  and  yeare  above-written.  Provided  also  that 
the  said  Robert  Plumpton  shall  beare  the  charges  of 
the  said  John  Yaxley,  as  well  at  York  as  at  Nottingham 
and  Derby,  and  also  to  content  and  pay  the  said  money 
to  the  said  John  Yaxley  corned  to  the  said  assizes  att 
Nott.,  Derb.,  and  York.  John  Yaxley." 

This  remarkable  agreement — made  after  Eichard  LIT. 
had  vainly  endeavored  to  compose  by  arbitration  the 
differences  between  Sir  Robert  and  Sir  Robert's  heir- 
general — certifies  that  Sir  Robert  Plumpton  engaged  to 
provide  the  sergeant  with  suitable  entertaiment  at  the 
assize  towns,  and  also  throws  light  upon  the  origin  of 
retaining-fees.  It  appears  from  the  agreement  that  in 
olden  time  a  retaining  fee  was  merely  part  (surrendered 
in  advance)  of  a  certain  sum  stipulated  to  be  paid  for 
certain  services.  In  principle  it  was  identical  with  the 
payment  of  the  shilling,  still  given  in  rural  districts,  to 
domestic  servants  on  an  agreement  for  service,  and  with 
the  transfer  of  the  queen's  shilling  given  to  every  soldier 
on  enlistment.  There  is  no  need  to  mention  the  classic 
origin  of  this  ancient  mode  of  giving  force  to  a  contract. 

From  the  '  Household  and  Privy  Purse  Expenses  of 
the  Le  Stranges  of  Hunstanton,'  published  in  the  Archce- 
ologia,  may  be  gleamed  some  interesting  particulars 
relating  to  the  payment  of  counsel  in  the  reign  of  Henry 
YUI.  In  1520,  Mr  Cristofer  Jenney  received  from  the 
Le  Stranges  a  half-yearly  fee  of  ten  shillings;  and  this 
general  retainer  was  continued  on  the  same  terms  till 
1527,  when  the  fee  was  raised  from  £1  per  annum  to 
a  yearly  payment  of  £2  13s.  4d.  To  Mr.  Knightley  was 
paid  the  sum  of  8s.  lid.  "  for  his  fee,  and  that  money 
yt  he  layde  oute  for  suying  of  Simon  Holden;"  and  the 
same  lawyer  also  received  at  another  time  14s.  Sd.  "for 
his  fee  and  cost  of  sute  for  hi  termes."  A  fee  of  6s.  8d. 
was  paid  to  "Mr.  Spehnan,  s'jeant,  for  his  counsell  in 


102  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

rcakyng  my  answer  in  ye  Duchy  Cham. ;"  and  the  same 
Serjeant  received  a  fee  of  3s.  4d.  "for  his  counsell  in 
putting  in  of  the  answer."  Fees  of  3s.  4d.  were  in  like 
manner  given  "  for  counsell "  to  Mr.  Knightley  .and  Mr. 
Whyte:  and  in  1534,  Mr.  Yelverton  was  remunerated 
"  for  his  counsell "  with  the  unusually  liberal  honorarium 
of  twenty  shillings.  From  the  household  book  of  the 
Earl  of  Northumberland,  it  appears  that  order  was  made, 
in  this  same  reign,  for  "  every  oone  of  my  lordes  coun- 
saill  to  have  c's.  fees,  if  he  have  it  in  household  and  not 
by  patent."  After  the  earl's  establishment  was  reduced 
to  forty-two  persons,  it  still  retained  "one  of  my  lordes 
counsaill  for  annswering  and  riddying  of  causes,  whenne 
sutors  cometh  to  my  lord."  At  a  time  when  every  lord 
was  required  to  administer  justice  to  his  tenants  and  the 
inferior  people  of  his  territory,  a  counsellor  learned  in 
the  law,  was  an  important  and  most  necessary  officer  in 
a  grand  seigneur's  retinue. 

"Whilst  Sir  Thomas  More  lived  in  Bucklersbury,  he 
"  gained,  without  grief,  not  so  little  as  £400  by  the 
year."  This  income  doubtless  accrued  from  the  emolu- 
ments of  his  judicial  appointment  in  the  City,  as  well  as 
from  his  practice  at  Westminster  and  elsewhere.  In 
Henry  VJ_LL.'s  time  it  was  a  very  considerable  income, 
such  as  was  equalled  by  few  leaders  of  the  bar  not  holding 
high  office  under  the  Crown. 

In  Elizabeth's  reign,  and  during  the  time  of  her  suces- 
Bor,  barristers'  fees  show  a  tendency  toward  increase; 
and  the  lawyers  who  were  employed  as  advocates  for  the 
Crown,  or  held  judicial  appointments,  acquired  princely 
incomes,  and  in  some  cases  amassed  large  fortunes.  Fees 
of  20s.  were  more  generally  paid  to  counsel  under  the 
virgin  queen,  than  in  the  days  of  her  father;  but  still  half 
that  fee  was  not  thought  too  small  a  sum  for  an  opinion 
given  by  Her  Majesty's  Solicitor  General.     Indeed,  the 


Money.  103 

ten-shilling  fee  was  a  very  usual  fee  in  Elizabeth's  reign; 
and  it  long  continued  an  ordinary  payment  for  one 
opinion  on  a  case,  or  for  one  speech  in  a  cause  of 
no  great  importance  and  of  few  difficulties.  'A  bar- 
rister is  like  Balaam's  ass,  only  speaking  when  he 
sees  the  angel,'  was  a  familiar  saying  in  the  seventeenth 
century.  In  Chancery,  however,  by  an  ordinance  of  the 
Lords  Commissioners  passed  in  1654,  to  regulate  the 
conduct  of  suits  and  the  payments  to  masters,  counsel, 
and  solicitors,  it  was  arranged  that  on  the  hearing  of  a 
cause,  utter-barristers  should  receive  £1  fees,  whilst  the 
Lord  Protector's  counsel  and  sergeants-at-law  should 
receive  £2  fees,  i.e.,  '  double  fees.' 

The  archives  of  Lyme  Eegis  show  that  under  Elizabeth 
the  usage  was  maintained  of  supplying  counsel  with 
delicacies  of  the  table,  and  also  of  providing  them  with 
means  of  locomotion.  Here  are  some  items  in  an  old  record 
of  disbursements  made  by  the  corporation  of  Lyme  Regis : 
— "  a.  d.  Paid  for  Wine  carried  with  us  to  Mr.  Poulett 
— £0  8&  6d. ;  Wine  and  sugar  given  to  Mr.  Poulett,  £0 
3s.  4rf. ;  Horse-hire,  and  for  the  Sergeant  to  ride  to  Mr. 
Walrond,  of  Bovey,  and  for  a  loaf  of  sugar,  and  for 
conserves  given  there  to  Mr.  Poppel,  £1  Is.  0d.;  Wine 
and  sugar  given  to  Judge  Anderson,  £0  3s.  4d.  A  bottle 
and  sugar  given  to  Mr.  Gibbs  (a  lawyer)." 

Under  Elizabeth,  the  allowance  made  to  Queen's  Ser- 
geants was  £26  6s.  Sd.  for  fee,  reward,  and  robes;  and 
£20.  for  his  services  whenever  a  Queen's  Sergeant  travelled 
circuit  as  Justice  of  Assize.  The  fee  for  her  Solicitor 
General  was  £50.  When  Francis  Bacon  was  created 
King's  Counsel  to  James  I.,  an  annual  salary  of  forty 
pounds  was  assigned  to  him  from  the  royal  purse ;  and 
down  to  William  rV.'s  time,  King's  Counsel  received  a 
stipend  of  £40  a  year,  and  an  allowance  for  stationery. 
Under  the  last  mentioned  monarch,  however,  the  stipend 


104  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

and  allowance  were  both  withdrawn;  and  at  present  the 
status  of  a  Q.  C.  is  purely  an  affair  of  professional  pre- 
cedence, to  which  no  fixed  emolument  is  attached. 

But  a  list  of  the  fees,  paid  from  the  royal  purse  to 
each  judge  or  crown  lawyer  under  James  I.,  would  afford 
no  indication  as  to  the  incomes  enjoyed  by  the  leading 
members  of  the  bench  and  bar  at  that  period.  The  sala- 
ries paid  to  those  officers  were  merely  retaining  fees,  and 
their  chief  remuneration  consisted  of  a  large  number  of 
smaller  fees.  Like  the  judges  of  prior  reigns,  King 
James's  judges  were  forbidden  to  accept  presents  from 
actual  suitors;  but  no  suitor  could  obtain  a  hearing  from 
any  one  of  them,  until  he  had  paid  into  court  certain  fees, 
of  which  the  fattest  was  a  sum  of  money  for  the  judge's 
personal  use.  At  one  time  many  persons  labored  under 
an  erroneous  impression,  that  as  judges  were  forbidden 
to  accept  presents  from  actual  suitors,  the  honest  judge 
of  past  times  had  no  revenue  besides  his  specified  salary 
and  allowance.  Like  the  king's  judges,  the  king's  coun- 
sellors frequently  made  great  incomes  by  fees,  though 
their  nominal  salaries  were  invariably  insignificant.  At 
a  time  when  Francis  Bacon  was  James's  Attorney  Gen- 
eral, and  received  no  more  than  £81  6s.  8d.  for  his  yearly 
salary,  he  made  £6000  per  annum  in  his  profession;  and 
of  that  income — a  royal  income  in  those  days — the  greater 
portion  consisted  of  fees  paid  to  him  for  attending  to  the 
king's  business.  "I  shall  now,"  Bacon  wrote  to  the 
king,  "  again  make  oblation  to  your  Majesty, — first  of 
my  heart,  then  of  my  service;  thirdly,  of  my  place  of 
Attorney,  which  I  think  is  honestly  worth  £6000  per 
annum;  and  fourthly,  of  my  place  in  the  Star  Chamber, 
which  is  worth  £1600  per  annum,  and  with  the  favor  and 
countenance  of  a  Chancellor,  much  more."  Coke  had 
made  a  still  larger  income  during  his  tenure  of  the  At- 
torney's place,  the  fees  from  his  private  official  practice 


Money.  1C5 

amounting  to  no  less  a  sum  than  seven  thousand  pounds 
in  a  single  year. 

At  later  periods  of  the  seventeenth  century  barristers 
made  large  incomes,  but  the  fees  seem  to  have  been  by  no 
means  exorbitant.  Junior  barristers  received  very  modest 
payments,  and  it  would  appear  that  juniors  received  fees 
from  eminent  counsel  for  opinions  and  other  professional 
services.  "Whilst  he  acted  as  treasurer  of  the  Middle 
Temple,  at  an  early  period  of  his  career,  Whitelock  re- 
ceived a  fee  from  Attorney  General  Noy.  "Upon  my 
carrying  the  bill,"  writes  Whitelock,  "  to  Mr.  Attorney 
General  Noy  for  his  signature,  with  that  of  the  other 
benchers,  he  was  pleased  to  advise  with  me  about  a  patent 
the  king  had  commanded  him  to  draw,  upon  which  he 
gave  me  a  fee  for  it  out  of  his  little  purse,  saying,  '  Here, 
take  those  single  pence,'  which  amounted  to  eleven  groats, 
■  and  I  give  you  more  than  an  attorney's  fee,  because  you 
will  be  a  better  man  than  the  Attorney  General.  This 
you  will  find  to  be  true.'  After  much  other  drollery, 
wherein  he  delighted  and  excelled,  we  parted,  abundance 
of  company  attending  to  speak  to  him  all  this  time."  Of 
course  the  payment  itself  was  no  part  of  the  drollery  to 
which  Whitelock  alludes,  for  as  a  gentleman  he  could  not 
have  taken  money  proffered  to  him  in  jest,  unless  etiquette 
encouraged  him  to  look  for  it,  and  allowed  him  to  accept 
it.  The  incident  justifies  the  inference  that  the  services 
of  junior  counsel  to  senior  barristers — services  at  the 
present  time  termed  I  devilling ' — were  formerly  remuner- 
ated with  cash  payments. 

Toward  the  close  of  Charles  I.'s  reign — at  a  time 
when  political  distractions  were  injuriously  affecting  the 
legal  profession,  especially  the  staunch  royalists  of  the 
long  robe — Maynard,  the  Parliamentary  lawyer,  received 
on  one  round  of  the  "Western  Circuit,  £700,  "which," 
observes  "Whitelock,  to  whom  Maynard  communicated  the 


106  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

fact,  "  I  believe  was  more  than  any  one  of  our  profession 
got  before." 

Concerning  the  incomes  made  by  eminent  counsel  in 
Charles  IL's  time,  many  data  are  preserved  in  diaries 
and  memoirs.  That  a  thousand  a  year  was  looked  upon 
as  a  good  income  for  a  flourishing  practitioner  of  the 
1  merry  monarch's'  Chancery  bar,  may  be  gathered  from 
a  passage  in  'Pepys's  Diary,'  where  the  writer  records  the 
compliments  paid  to  him  regarding  his  courageous  and 
eloquent  defence  of  the  Admiralty,  before  the  House  of 
Commons  in  March,  1668.  Under  the  influence  of  half- 
a-pint  of  mulled  sack  and  a  dram  of  brandy,  the  Admi- 
ralty clerk  made  such  a  spirited  and  successful  speech 
in  behalf  of  his  department,  that  he  was  thought  to  have 
effectually  silenced  all  grumbers  against  the  management 
of  his  Majesty's  navy.  Compliments  flowed  in  upon  the 
orator  from  all  directions.  Sir  William  Coventry  pledged 
his  judgment  that  the  fame  of  the  oration  would  last  for 
ever  in  the  Commons;  silver-tongued  Sir  Heneage  Finch, 
in  the  blandest  tones,  averred  that  no  other  living  man 
could  have  made  so  excellent  a  speech ;  the  placemen  of  the 
Admiralty  vied  with  each  other  in  expressions  of  delight 
and  admiration;  and  one  flatterer,  whose  name  is  not  re- 
corded, caused  Mr.  Pepys  infinite  pleasure  by  saying 
that  the  speaker  who  had  routed  the  accusers  of  a  govern- 
ment office,  might  easily  earn  a  thousand  a  year  at  the 
Chancery  bar. 

That  sum,  however,  is  insignificant  when  it  is  compared 
with  the*  incomes  made  by  the  most  fortunate  advocates 
of  that  period.  Eminent  speakers  of  the  Common  Law 
Bar  made  between  £2000  and  £3500  per  annum  on 
circuit  and  at  Westminster,  without  the  aid  of  king's 
business;  and  still  larger  receipts  were  recorded  in  the 
fee-books  of  his  Majesty's  attorneys  and  solicitors.  At 
the  Chancery  bar  of  the  second  Charles,  there  was  at 


Money.  107 

least  one  lawyer,  who  in  one  year  made  considerably  more 
than  four  times  the  income  that  was  suggested  to  Pepys's 
vanity  and  self-complacence.  At  Stanford  Court,  "Wor- 
cestershire, is  preserved  a  fee-book  kept  by  Sir  Francis 
"Wilmington,  Solicitor-General  to  the  '  merry  monarch,' 
from  December  1674  to  January  13,  1679,  from  the 
entries  of  which  record  the  reader  may  form  a  tolerably 
correct  estimate  of  the  professional  revenues  of  successful 
lawyers  at  that  time.  In  Easter  Term,  1671,  Sir  Francis 
pocketed  £459;  in  Trinity  Term  £449  10s.;  in  Michael- 
mas Term  £521;  and  in  Hilary  Term  1672,  £361  10s.; 
the  income  for  the  year  being  £1791,  without  his  earnings 
on  the  Oxford  Circuit  and  during  vacation.  In  1673,  Sir 
Francis  received- £3371;  in  1674,  he  earned  £3560;*  and 
in  1675 — i.e.,  the  first  year  of  his  tenure  of  the  Solicitor's 
office — his  professional  income  was  £4066,  of  which  sum 
£429  were  office  fees.  Concerning  the  Attorney-Gene- 
ral's receipts  about  this  time,  we  have  sufficient  informa- 
tion from  Roger  North,  who  records  that  his  brother, 
whilst  Attorney  General,  made  nearly  seven  thousand 
pounds  in  one  year,  from  private  and  official  business. 
It  is  noteworthy  that  North,  as  Attorney  General,  made 
the  same  income  which  Coke  realized  in  the  same  office 
at  the  commencement  of  the  century.  But  under  the 
Stuarts  this  large  income  of  £7000 — in  those  days  a 
princely  revenue — was  earned  by  work  so  perilous  and 
fruitful  of  obloquy,  that  even  Sir  Francis,  who  loved 
money  and  cared  little  for  public  esteem,  was  glad  to 


*  In  his  '  Survey  of  the  State  of  England  in  1685,'  Macauley — giving  one  of  those 
misleading  references  with  which  his  history  abounds — says:  "  A  thousand  a  year 
was  thought  a  large  income  for  a  barrister.  Two  thousand  a  year  was  hardly  to 
be  made  in  the  Court  of  King's  Bench,  except  by  crown  lawyers."  Whilst  making 
the  first  statement,  he  doubtless  remembered  the  passage  in  '  Pepys's  Diary.'  For 
the  second  statement,  he  refers  to  'Layton's  Conversation  with  Chief  Justice  Hale.' 
It  is  fair  to  assume  that  Lord  Macauley  had  never  seen  Sir  Francis  Wilmington's 
fee-book. 


108  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

resign  the  post  of  Attorney,  and  retire  to  the  Pleas  with 
£4000  a  year.  That  the  fees  of  the  Chancery  lawyers 
under  Charles  II.  were  regulated  upon  a  liberal  scale  we 
know  from  Koger  North,  and  the  record  of  Sir  John 
King's  success.  Speaking  of  his  brother  Francis,  the 
biographer  says:  "After  he,  as  king's  counsel,  came 
within  the  bar,  he  began  to  have  calls  into  the  Court  Of 
Chancery;  which  he  liked  very  well,  because  the  quantity 
of  the  business,  as  well  as  the  fees,  was  greater;  but  his 
home  was  the  King's  Bench,  where  he  sat  and  reported 
like  as  other  practitioners."  And  in  Sir  John  King's 
memoirs  it  is  recorded  that  in  1676  he  made  £4700,  and 
that  he  received  from  £40  to  £50  a  day  during  the  last 
four  days  of  his  appearance  in  court.  Dying  in  1677,* 
whilst  his  supremacy  in  his  own  court  was  at  its  height, 
Sir  John  King  was  long"  spoken  of  as  a  singularly  suc- 
cessful Chancery  barrister. 

Of  Francis  North's  mode  of  taking  and  storing  his  fees, 
the  '  Life  of  Lord  Keeper  Guildford'  gives  the  following 
picture:  "His  business  inci eased,  even  while  he  was 
Solicitor,  to  be  so  much  as  to  have  overwhelmed  one  less 
dexterous;  but  when  he  was  made  Attorney  General, 
though  his  gains  by  his  office  were  great,  they  were  much 
greater  by  his  practice;  for  that  flowed  in  upon  him  like 
an  orage,  enough  to  overset  one  that  had  not  an  extra- 
ordinary readiness  in  business.  His  skull-caps,  which  he 
wore  when  he  had  leisure  to  observe  his  constitution,  as 


*  In  the  fourth  day  of  his  fever,  he  being  att  the  Chancery  Bar,  he  fell  so  ill  of 
the  fever,  that  he  was  forced  to  leave  the  Court  and  come  to  his  chambers  in  the 
Temple,  with  one  of  his  clerks,  which  constantly  waytod  on  him  and  carried  his 
bags  of  writings  for  his  pleadings,  and  there  told  him  that  he  should  return  to 
every  clyent  his  breviat  and  his  fee,  for  he  could  serve  them  no  longer,  for  he  had 
done  with  this  world,  and  thence  came  home  to  lus  house  in  SaUsbury  Court,  and 
took  his  bed.  ....  And  there  he  sequestered  himself  to  meditation  between  God 
and  his  own  soul,  without  the  least  regret,  and  quietly  and  patiently  contented 
himself  with  the  will  of  God."—  Vide  Memoir  of  Sir  John  King,  Knt.,  written 
by  his  Father. 


Money.  109 

I  touched  before,  were  now  destined  to  lie  in  a  drawer  to 
receive  the  money  that  came  in  by  fees.  One  had  the 
gold,  £n other  the  crowns  and  half-crowns,  and  another 
the  smaller  money.  "When  these  vessels  were  full,  they 
were  committed  to  his  friend  (the  Hon.  Eoger  North), 
who  was  constantly  near  him,  to  tell  out  the  cash,  and 
put  it  into  the  bags  according  to  the  contents;  and  so 
they  went  to  his  treasurers,  Blanchard  and  Child,  gold- 
smiths, Temple  Bar."*  In  the  days  of  wigs,  skull-caps 
like  those  which  Francis  North  used  as  receptacles  for 
money,  were  very  generally  worn  by  men  of  all  classes 
and  employments.  On  returning  to  the  privacy  of  his 
home,  a  careful  citizen  usually  laid  aside  his  costly  wig, 
and  replaced  it  with  a  cheap  and  durable  skull-cap,  before 
he  sat  down  in  his  parlor.  So  also,  men  careful  of 
their  health  often  wore  skull-caps  under  their  wigs,  on 
occasions  when  they  were  required  to  endure  a  raw  at- 
mosphere without  the  protection  of  their  beavers.  In 
days  when  the  law-courts  were  held  in  the  open  hall  of 


*  The  lawyers  of  the  seventeenth  century  were  accustomed  to  make  a  show  of 
their  fees  to  the  clients  who  called  upon  them.  Hudibras's  lawyer  (Hud.,  Part  iii. 
cant.  3)  is  described  as  sitting  in  state  with  his  books  and  money  before  him  : 

"  To  this  brave  mm  the  knight  repairs 
For  counsel  in  his  law  affairs, 
And  found  him  mounted  in  his  pew, 
With  books  and  money  placed  for  shew, 
Like  nest-eggs,  to  make  clients  lay, 
And  for  his  false  opinion  pay: 
To  whom  the  knight,  with  comely  grace, 
Put  off  his  hat  to  put  his  case, 
Which  he  as  proudly  entertain'd 
As  the  other  courteously  strain'd; 
And  to  assure  him  'twas  not  that 
He  looked  for,  bid  him  put  on's  hat." 

Under  Victoria,  the  needy  junior  is  compelled,  for  the  sake  of  appearances,  to 
furnish  his  shelves  with  law  books,  and  cover  his  table  with  counterfeit  briefs. 
Under  the  Stuarts,  he  placed  a  bowl  of  spurious  money  amongst  the  sham  papers 
that  lay  upon  his  table. 


110  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

"Westminster,  and  lawyers  practising  therein,  were  com- 
pelled to  sit  or  speak  for  hours  together,  exposed  to  sharp 
currents  of  cold  air,  it  was  customary  for  wearers  of  the 
long  robe  to  place  between  their  wigs  and  natural  hair 
closely-fitting  caps,  made  of  stout  silk  or  soft  leather. 
But  more  interesting  than  the  money-caps,  are  the  fees 
which  they  contained.  The  ringing  of  the  gold  pieces, 
the  clink  of  the  crowns  with  the  half-crowns,  and  the 
rattle  of  the  smaller  money,  led  back  the  barrister  to 
those  happier  and  remote  times,  when  the  '  inferior  order ' 
of  the  profession  paid  the  superior  order  with  *  money 
down;'  when  the  advocate  never  opened  his  mouth  till 
his  fingers  had  closed  upon  the  gold  of  his  trustful  client; 
when  '  credit '  was  unknown  in  transactions  between 
counsel  and  attorney; — that  truly  golden  age  of  the  bar, 
when  the  barrister  was  less  suspicious  of  the  attorney, 
and  the  attorney  held  less  power  over  the  barrister. 

Having  profited  by  the  liberal  pryments  of  Chancery 
whilst  he  was  an  advocate,  Lord  Keeper  Guildford  de- 
stroyed one  source  of  profit  to  counsel  from  which 
Francis  North,  the  barrister,  had  drawn  many  a  capful 
of  money.  Saith  Roger,  "  He  began  to  rescind  all 
motions  for  speeding  and  delaying  the  hearing  of  causes 
besides  the  ordinary  rule  of  court;  and  this  lopped  off  a 
limb  of  the  motion  practice.  I  have  heard  Sir  John 
Churchill,  a  famous  Chancery  practitioner,  say,  that  in 
his  walk  from  Lincoln's  Inn  down  to  the  Temple  Hall, 
where,  in  the  Lord  Keeper  Bridgman's  time,  causes  and 
motions  out  of  term  were  heard,  he  had  taken  £28.  with 
breviates  only  for  motions  and  defences  for  hastening  and 
retarding  hearings.  His  lordship  said,  that  the  rule  of 
the  court  allowed  time  enough  for  any  one  to  proceed  or 
defend;  and  if,  for  special  reasons,  he  should  give  way  to 
orders  for  timing  matters,  it  would  let  in  a  deluge  of 
vexatious  pretenses,  which,  true  or  false,  being  asserted 


Money.  HI 

by  the  counsel  with  equal  assurance,  distracted  the  court 
and  confounded  the  suitors." 

Let  due  honor  be  rendered  to  one  Caroline,  lawyer, 
who  was  remarkable  for  his  liberality  to  clients,  and  care- 
lessness of  his  own  pecuniary  interests.  From  his  various 
biographers,  many  pleasant  stories  may  be  gleaned  con- 
cerning Hale's  freedom  from  base  love  of  money.  In  his 
days,  and  long  afterward,  professional  etiquette  per- 
mitted clients  and  counsel  to  hold  intercourse  without 
the  intervention  of  an  attorney.  Suitors,  therefore,  fre- 
quently addressed  him  personally  and  paid  for  his  advice 
with  their  own  hands,  just  as  patients  are  still  accus- 
tomed to  fee  their  doctors.  To  these  personal  applicants, 
and  also  to  clients  who  approached  him  by  their  agents, 
he  was  very  liberal.  "  When  those  who  came  to  ask  his 
counsel  gave  him  a  piece,  he  used  to  give  back  the  half, 
and  to  make  ten  shillings  his  fee  in  ordinary  matters  that 
did  not  require  much  time  or  study."  From  this  it  may 
be  inferred  that  whilst  Hale  was  an  eminent  member  of 
the  bar,  twenty  shillings  was  the  usual  fee  to  a  leading 
counsel,  and  an  angel  the  customary  honorarium  to  an 
ordinary  practitioner.  As  readers  have  already  been 
told,  the  angel*  was  a  common  fee  in  the  seventeenth 
century;  but  the  story  of  Hale's  generous  usage  implies 
that  his  more  distinguished  contemporaries  were  wont  to 


*  In  the  '  Serviens  ad  Legem,'  Mr.  Sergeant  Manning  raises  question  concerning 
the  antiquity  of  guineas  and  half-guineas,  with  the  following  remarks :—"  Should 
any  cavil  be  raised  against  this  jocular  allusion,  on  the  ground  that  guineas  an  1 
half-guineas  were  unknown  to  sergeants  who  flourished  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
the  objector  might  be  reminded,  that  in  antique  records,  instances  occur  in  which 
the  'guianois  d'or,'  issued  from  the  ducal  mint  at  Bordeaux,  by  the  authority  of 
the  Plantagenet  sovereigns  of  Guienne,  were  by  the  same  authority,  made  current 
among  their  English  subjects ;  and  it  might  be  suggested  that  those  who  have 
gone  to  the  coast  of  Africa  for  the  origin  of  the  modern  guinea,  need  not  have 
carried  their  researches  beyond  the  Bay  of  Biscay.  Quwre,  whether  the  Guinea 
Coast  itself  may  not  owe  its  name  to  the  '  guianois  d'or'  for  which  it  furnished  tho 
raw  material." 


112  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

look  for  and  accept  a  double  fee.     Moreover,  the  anec- 
dote would  not  be  told  in  Hale's  honor,  if  etiquette  had 
fixed  the  double  fee  as  the  minimum  of  remuneration  for 
a  superior  barrister's  opinion.     He  was  frequently  em- 
ployed in    arbitration    cases,  and    as  an   arbitrator  he 
steadily  refused  payment  for    his  services  to  legal  dis- 
putants, saying,  in  explanation  of  his  moderation,  "In 
these  cases  I  am  made  a  judge,  and  a  judge  ought  to  take 
no  money."     The  misapprehension  as  to  the  nature  of  an 
arbitrator's  functions,  displayed  in  these  words,  gives  an 
instructive  insight  into  the  mental  constitution  of  the 
judge  who  wrote  on  natural  science,  and  at  the  same  time 
exerted  himself  to  secure  the  conviction  of  witches.     A 
more  pleasant  and  commendable  illustration  of  his  con- 
scientiousness in  pecuniary  matters,  is  found  in  the  steadi- 
ness with  which  he  refused  to  throw  upon  society  the 
spurious  coin  which  he  had  taken  from  his  clients.     In  a 
tone  of  surprise  that  raises  a  smile  at  the  average  morality 
of  our  forefathers,  Bishop  Burnet  tells  of  Hale :  "  Another 
remarkable  instanc  3  of  his  justice  and  goodness  was,  that 
when  he  found  ill  money  had  been  put  into  his  hands,  he 
would  never  suffer  it  to  be  vented  again;  for  he  thought 
it  was  no  excuse  for  him  to  put  false  money  in  other 
people's  hands,  because  some  had  put  it  into  his.    A  great 
heap  of  this  he  had  gathered  together,  for  many  had  so 
abused  his  goodness  as  to  mix  base  money  among  the  fees 
that  were  given  him."    In  this  particular  case,  the  judge's 
virtue  was  its  own  reward.     His  house  being  entered  by 
burglars,  this  accumulation  of  bad  money  attracted  the 
notice  of  the  robbers,  who  selected  it  from  a  variety  of 
goods  and  chattels,  and  cariied  it  off  under  the  impres- 
sion that  it  was  the  lawyer's  hoarded  treasure.     Besides 
large  sums  expended  on  unusual  acts  of  charity,  this  good 
man  habitually  distributed  amongst  the  poor  a  tithe  of 
his  professional  earnings. 


Money.  113 

In  the  seventeenth  century,  General  Retainers  were 
very  common,  and  the  counsel  learned  in  the  law,  were 
ready  to  accept  them  from  persons  of  low  extraction  and 
questionable  repute.  Indeed,  no  upstart  deemed  himself 
properly  equipped  for  a  campaign  at  court,  until  he  bad 
recorded  a  fictitious  pedigree  at  the  Herald's  College, 
taken  a  barrister  as  well  as  a  doctor  into  regular  employ- 
ment, and  hired  a  curate  to  say  grace  daily  at  his  table. 
In  the  summer  of  his  vile  triumph,  Titus  Oates  was  at- 
tended, on  public  occasions,  by  a  robed  counsel  and  a 
physician. 


CHAPTER  XIH 

RETAINERS   GENERAL  AND   SPECIAL. 

P EMBERTON'S  fees  for  his  services  in  behalf  of  the 
Seven  Bishops  show  that  the  most  eminent  counsel 
of  his  time  were  content  with  very  modest  remuneration 
for  advice  and  eloquence.  From  the  bill  of  an  attorney 
employed  in  that  famous  trial,  it  appears  that  the  ex- 
Chief  Justice  was  paid  a  retaining-fee  of  five  guineas, 
and  received  twenty  guineas  with  his  brief.  He  also 
pocketed  three  guineas  for  a  consultation.  At  the 
present  date,  thirty  times  the  sum  of  these  paltry  pay- 
ments would  be  thought  an  inadequate  compensation 
for  such  zeal,  judment,  and  ability  as  Francis  Pember- 
ton  displayed  in  the  defence  of  his  reverend  clients. 

But,  though  lawyers  were  paid  thus  moderately  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  the  complaints  concerning  their 
avarice  and  extortions  were  loud  and  universal.  This 
public  discontent  was  due  to  the  inordinate  exactions  of 
judges  and  place-holders  rather  than  to  the  conduct  of 
barristers  and  attorneys;  but  popular  displeasure  seldom 


114  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

cares  to  discriminate  between  the  blameless  and  the 
culpable  members  of  an  obnoxious  system,  or  to  dis- 
tinguish between  the  errors  of  ancient  custom  and  the 
qualities  of  those  persons  who  are  required  to  carry  out 
old  rules.  Hence  the  really  honest  and  useful  practi- 
tioners of  the  law  endured  a  full  share  of  the  obloquy 
caused  by  the  misconduct  of  venal  justices  and  corrupt 
officials.  Counsel,  attorneys,  and  even  scriveners  came 
in  for  abuse.  It  was  averred  that  they  conspired  to 
pick  the  public  pocket;  that  eminent  conveyancers  not  less 
than  copying  clerks,  swelled  their  emoluments  by  knavish 
tricks.  They  would  talk  for  the  mere  purpose  of  pro- 
tracting litigation,  injure  their  clients  by  vexatious  and 
bootless  delays,  and  do  their  work  so  that  they  might  be 
fed  for  doing  it  again.  Draughtsmen  and  their  clerks 
wrote  loosely  and  wordily,  because  they  were  paid  by  the 
folio.  "  A  term,"  writes  the  quaint  author  of  '  Saint 
Hillaries  Teares,'  in  1642,  "so  like  a  vacation;  the 
prime  court,  the  Chancery  (wherein  the  clerks  had  wont 
to  dash  their  clients  out  of  countenance  with  long 
dashes) ;  the  examiners  to  take  the  depositions  in  hy- 
perboles, and  roundabout  Eobinhood  circumstances  with 
saids  and  qforesaids,  to  enlarge  the  number  of  sheets." 
'Hudibras'  contains,  amongst  other  pungent  satires 
against  the  usages  of  lawyers,  an  allusion  to  this  charac- 
teristic custom  of  legal  draughtsmen,  who  being  paid 
by  the  sheet,  were  wont 

"  To  make  'twixt  words  and  lines  large  gaps, 
Wide  as  meridians  in  maps; 
To  squander  paper  and  spare  ink, 
Or  cheat  men  of  their  words  some  think." 

In  the  following  century  the  abuses  consequent  on  the 
objectionable  system  of  folio-payment  were  noticed  in  a 
parliamentary  report  (bearing  date  November  8,  1740), 
which  was  the  most  important  result  of  an  ineffectual 


Money.  115 

attempt  to  reform  the  superior  courts  of  law  and  to 
lessen  the  expenses  of  litigation. 

More  is  known  about  the  professional  receipts  of 
lawyers  since  the  Kevolution  of  1688  than  can  be  disco- 
vered concerning  the  incomes  of  their  precursors  in  West- 
minster Hall.  For  six  years,  commencing  with  Michaelmas 
Term,  1719,  Sir  John  Cheshire,  King's  Sergeant,  made  an 
average  annual  income  of  3241/.  Being  then  sixty-three 
years  of  age,  he  limited  his  practice  to  the  Common  Pleas, 
and  during  the  next  six  years  made  in  that  qne  court  1320/. 
per  annum.  Mr.  Foss,  to  whom  the  present  writer  is 
indebted  for  these  particulars  with  regard  to  Sir  John 
Cheshire's  receipts,  adds:  "The  fees  of  counsel's  clerks 
form  a  great  contrast  with  those  that  are  now  demanded, 
being  only  threepence  on  a  fee  of  half-a-guinea,  sixpence 
for  a  guinea,  and  one  shilling  for  two  guineas."  Of 
course  the  increase  of  clerk's  fees  tells  more  in  favor  of 
the  master  than  the  servant.  At  the  present  time  the 
clerk  of  a  barrister  in  fairly  lucrative  practice  costs  his 
master  nothing.  Bountifully  paid  by  his  employer's 
clients,  he  receives  no  salary  from  the  counsellor  whom 
he  serves;  whereas,  in  old  times,  when  his  fees  were 
fixed  at  the  low  rate  just  mentioned,  the  clerk  could  not 
live  and  maintain  a  family  upon  them,  unless  his  master 
belonged  to  the  most  successful  grade  of  his  order. 

Horace  Walpole  tells  his  readers  that  Charles  Yorke 
"  was  reported  to  have  received  100,000  guineas  in  fees;" 
but  his  fee-book  showa  that  his  professional  rise  was  by 
no  means  so  rapid  as  those  who  knew  him  in  his  sun- 
niest days  generally  supposed.  The  story  of  his  growing 
fortunes  is  indicated  in  the  following  statement  of  suc- 
cessive incomes: — 1st  year  of  practice  at  the  bar,  121/. 
2nd,  201/.;  3rd  and  4th,  between  300/.  and  400/.  per 
annum;  5th,  700/.;  6th,  800/.;  7th,  1000/.;  9th,  1600/.; 
10th,  2500/.      Whilst  Solicitor  General  he  mode  3400/. 


116  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

in  1757;  and  in  the  following  year  he  earned  5000Z. 
His  receipts  during  the  last  year  of  his  tenure  of  the 
Attorney  Generalship  amounted  to  7322/.  The  reader 
should  observe  that  as  Attorney  General  he  made  but 
little  more  than  Coke  had  realized  in  the  same  office, — a 
fact  serving  to  show  how  much  better  paid  were  Crown 
lawyers  in  times  when  they  held  office  like  judges  during 
the  Sovereign's  pleasure,  than  in  these  latter  days  when 
they  retire  from  place  together  with  their  political  parties. 

The  difference  between  the  incomes  of  Scotch  ad- 
vocates and  English  barristers  was  far  greater  in  the 
eighteenth  century  than  at  the  present  time,  although 
in  our  own  day  the  receipts  of  several  second-rate  law- 
yers of  the  Temple  and  Lincoln's  Inn  far  surpass  the  rev- 
enues of  the  most  successful  advocates  of  the  Edinburgh 
faculty.  A  hundred  and  thirty  years  since  a  Scotch  bar- 
rister who  earned  500Z.  per  annum  by  his  profession  was 
esteemed  notably  successful. 

Just  as  Charles  Torke's  fee-book  shows  us  the  pecu- 
niary position  of  an  eminent  English  barrister  in  the 
middle  of  the  last  century,  John  Scott's  list  of  receipts 
displays  the  prosperity  of  a  very  fortunate  Crown  lawyer 
in  the  next  generation.  Without  imputing  motives  the 
present  writer  may  venture  to  say  that  Lord  Eldon's 
assertions  with  regard  to  his  earnings  at  the  bar,  and 
his  judicial  incomes,  were  not  in  strict  accordance  with 
the  evidence  of  his  private  accounts.  He  used  to  say 
that  his  first  year's  earnings  in  his  profession  amounted 
to  half-a-guinea,  but  there  is  conclusive  proof  that  he 
had  a  considerable  quantity  of  lucrative  business  in 
the  same  year.  "When  I  was  called  to  the  bar,"  it 
was  his  humor  to  say,  "  Bessie  and  I  thought  all  our 
troubles  were  over,  business  was  to  pour  in,  and  we  were 
to  be  rich  almost  immediately.  So  I  made  a  bargain 
with  her  that  during  the  following  year  all  the  money  I 


Money.  117 

should  receive  in  the  first  eleven  months  should  be  mine, 
and  whatever  I  should  get  in  the  twelfth  month  should 
be  hers.  That  was  our  agreement,  and  how  do  you 
think  it  turned  out?  In  the  twelfth  month  I  received 
half-a-guinea — eighteenpence  went  for  charity,  and  Bessy 
got  nine  shillings.  In  the  other  eleven  months  I  got 
one  shilling."  John  Scott,  be  it  remembered,  was  called 
to  the  bar  on  February  9,  1776,  and  on  October  2,  of 
the  same  year,  "William  Scott  wrote  to  his  brother 
Henry — "My  brother  Jack  seems  highly  pleased  with 
his  circuit  business.  I  hope  it  is  only  the  beginning  of 
future  triumphs.  All  appearances  speak  strongly  in 
his  favor."  There  is  no  need  to  call  evidence  to  show 
that  Eldon's  success  was  more  than  respectable  from  the 
outset  of  his  career,  and  that  he  had  not  been  called 
many  years  before  he  was  in  the  foremost  rank  of  his 
profession.  His  fee-book  gives  the  following  account  of 
his, receipts  in  thirteen  successive  years: — 1786,6833/. 
7s.;  1787, '7600/.  7s.;  1788,  8419/.  14s.;  1789,9559?. 
10s.;  1790,  9684/.  15s.;  1791,  10,213/.  13s.  6d.;  1792, 
9080/.  9s.;  1793,  10,330/.  Is.  4d.;  1794,  11,592/.;  1795, 
11,149/.  15s.  Ad.;  1796,  12,140/.  15s.  8d.;  1797,  10,861/. 
5s.  8d.;  1798,  10,557/.  17s.  During  the  last  six  of  the 
above-mentioned  years  he  was  Attorney  General,  and 
during  the  preceding  four  years  Solicitor  General. 

Although  General  Eetainers  are  much  less  general 
than  formerly,  they  are  by  no  means  obsolete.  Noble- 
men could  be  mentioned  who  at  the  present  time  engage 
counsel  with  periodical  payments,  special  fees  of  course 
'being  also  paid  for  each  professional  service.  But  the 
custom  is  dying  out,  and  it  is  probable  that  after  the  lapse 
of  another  hundred  years  it  will  not  survive  save  amongst 
the  usages  of  ancient  corporations.  Notice  has  already 
been  taken  of  Murray's  conduct  when  he  returned  nine 
hundred  and  ninety-five  out  of  a  thousand  guineas  to  the 


118  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

Duchess  of  Marlborough,  informing  her  that  the  pro- 
fessional fee  with  the  general  retainer  was  neither  more 
nor  less  than  five  guineas.  The  annual  salary  of  a 
Queen's  Counsel  in  past  times  was  in  fact  a  fee  with  a 
general  retainer;  but  this  periodic  payment  is  no  longer 
made  to  wearers  of  silk. 

In  his  learned  work  on  '.The  Judges  of  England,'  Mr. 
Foss  observes:  "The  custom  of  retaining  counsel  in  fee 
lingered  in  form,  at  least  in  one  ducal  establishment. 
By  a  formal  deed-poll  between  the  proud  Duke  of  Somer- 
set and  Sir  Thomas  Parker,  dated  July  19,  1707,  the 
duke  retains  him  as  his  ■  standing  counsell  in  ffee,'  and 
gives  and  allows  him  '  the  yearly  ffee  of  four  markes,  to 
be  paid  by  my  solicitor '  at  Michaelmas,  '  to  continue 
during  my  will  and  pleasure.' "  Doubtless  Mr.  Foss  is 
aware  that  this  custom  still  'lingers  inform;'  but  the 
tone  of  his  words  justifies  the  opinion  that  he  under- 
rates the  frequency  with  which  general  retainers  are 
still  given.  The  '  standing  counsel '  of  civic  and  com- 
mercial companies  are  counsel  with  general  retainers, 
and  usually  their  general  retainers  have  fees  attached  to 
them. 

The  payments  of  English  barristers  have  varied  much 
more  than  the  remunerations  of  English  physicians. 
Whereas  medical  practitioners  in  every  age  have  received 
a  certain  definite  sum  for  each  consultation,  and  have 
been  forbidden  by  etiquette  to  charge  more  or  less  than 
the  fixed  rate,  lawyers  have  been  allowed  much  freedom 
in  estimating  the  worth  of  their  labor.  This  difference 
between  the  usages  of  the  two  professions  is  mainly  due 
to  the  fact,  that  the  amount  of  time  and  mental  effort 
demanded  by  patients  at  each  visit  or  consultation  is  very 
nearly  the  same  in  all  cases,  whereas  the  requirements  of 
clients  are  much  more  various.  To  get  up  the  facts  of  a 
law-case  may  be  the  work  of  minutes,  or  hours,  or  days, 


Money.  119 

or  even  weeks;  to  observe  the  symptoms  of  a  patient, 
and  to  write  a  prescription,  can  be  always  accomplished 
within  the  limits  of  a  short  morning  call.  In  all  times, 
however,  the  legal  profession  has  adopted  certain  scales 
of  payment — that  fixed  the  minimum  of  remuneration, 
but  left  the  advocate  free  to  get  more,  as  circum- 
stances might  encourage  him  to  raise  his  demands.  Of 
the  many  good  stories  told  of  artifices  by  which  barris- 
ters have  delicately  intimated  their  desire  for  higher  pay- 
ment, none  is  better  than  an  anecdote  recorded  of  Ser- 
geant Hill.  A  troublesome  case  being  laid  before  this 
most  erudite  of  George  IH.'s  sergeants,  he  returned  it 
with  a  brief  note,  that  he  "  saw  more  difficulty  in  the 
case  than,  under  alt  the  circumstances,  he  could  well  solve." 
As  the  fee  marked  upon  the  case  was  only  a  guinea,  the 
attorney  readily  inferred  that  its  smallness  was  one  of  the 
circumstances  which  occasioned  the  counsel's  difficulty. 
The  case,  therefore,  was  returned,  with  a  fee  of  two 
guineas.  Still  dissatisfied,  Sergeant  Hill  wrote  that  "  he 
saw  no  reason  to  change  his  opinion." 

By  the  etiquette  of  the  bar  no  barrister  is  permitted 
to  take  a  brief  on  any  circuit,  save  that  on  which  he 
habitually  practises,  unless  he  has  received  a  special  re- 
tainer ;  and  no  wearer  of  silk  can  be  specially  retained 
with  a  less  fee  than  three  hundred  guineas.  Erskine's 
first  special  retainer  was  in  the  Dean  of  St.  Asaph's  case, 
his  first  speech  in  which  memorable  cause  was  delivered 
when  he  had  been  called  to  the  bar  but  little  more  than 
five  years.  From  that  time  till  his  elevation  to  the 
bench  he  received  on  an  average  twelve  special  retainers 
a  year,  by  which  at  the  minimum  of  payment  he  made 
i£3600  per  annum.  Besides  being  lucrative  and  honor- 
able, this  special  employment  greatly  augmented  his  prac- 
tice in  Westminster  Hall,  as  it  brought  him  in  personal 
contact  with  attorneys  in  every  part  of  the  country,  and 


120  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

heightened  his  popularity  amongst  all  classes  of  his  fel- 
low-countrymen. In  1786  he  entirely  withdrew  from 
ordinary  circuit  practice,  and  confined  his  exertions  in 
provincial  courts  to  the  causes  for  which  he  was  specially 
retained.  No  advocate  since  his  time  has  received  an 
equal  number  of  special  retainers  ;  and  if  he  did  not 
originate  the  custom  of  special  retainers,*  he  was  the 
first  English  barrister  who  ventured  to  reject  all  other 
briefs. 

There  is  no  need  to  recapitulate  all  the  circumstances 
of  Erskine's  rapid  rise  in  his  profession — a  rise  due  to 
his  effective  brilliance  and  fervor  in  political  trial :  but 
this  chapter  on  lawyers'  fees  would  be  culpably  incom- 
plete, if  it  failed  to  notice  some  of  its  pecuniary  conse- 
quences. In  the  eighth  month  after  his  call  to  the  bar  he 
thanked  Admiral  Keppel  for  a  splendid  fee  of  one  thous- 
and pounds.  A  few  years  later  a  legal  gossip  wrote: 
"  Everybody  says  that  Erskine  will  be  Solicitor  General, 
and  if  he  is,  and  indeed  whether  he  is  or  not,  he  will 
have  had  the  most  rapid  rise  that  has  been  known  at  the 
bar.  It  is  four  years  and  a  half  since  he  was  called,  and 
in  that  time  he  has  cleared  £8000  or  £9000,  besides  pay- 
ing his  debts — got  a  silk  gown,  and  business  of  at  least 
£3000  a  year — a  seat  in  Parliament — and,  over  and  above, 
has  made  his  brother  Lord  Advocate." 

Merely  to  mention  large  fees  without  specifying  the 
work  by  which  they  were  earned  would  mislead  the  read- 
er. During  the  railway  mania  of  1845,  the  few  leaders 
of  the  parliamentary  bar  received  prodigious  fees ;  and 
in  some  cases  the  sums  were  paid  for  very  little  exertion. 
Frequently  it  happened  that  a  lawyer  took  heavy  fees  in 


*  Lord  Campbell  observes  :  "  Some  say  that  special  retainers  began  with 
ErRkine  ;  but  I  doubt  the  fact"  It  Is  strantje  that  there  shonld  be  uneertainy  as  to 
the  time  when  special  retainers — unquestionably  a  comparatively  recent  innovation 
in  legal  practice — came  into  vogue. 


Money.  121 

causes,  at  no  stage  of  which  he  either  made  a  speech  or 
read  a  paper  in  the  service  of  his  too  liberal  employers. 
During  that  period  of  mad  speculation  the  committee- 
rooms  of  the  two  Houses  were  an  El  Dorado  to  certain 
favored  lawyers,  who  were  alternately  paid  for  speech 
and  silence  with  reckless  profusion.  But  the  time  was  so 
exceptional,  that  the  fees  received  and  the  fortunes  made 
in  it  by  a  score  of  lucky  advocates  and  solicitors  cannot 
be  fairly  cited  as  facts  illustrating  the  social  condition  of 
legal  practitioners.  As  a  general  rule,  it  may  be  stated 
that  large  fortunes  are  not  made  at  the  bar  by  large  fees. 
Our  richest  lawyers  have  made  the  bulk  of  their  wealth 
by  accumulating  sufficient  but  not  exorbitant  payments. 
In  most  cases  the  large  fee  has  not  been  a  very  liberal 
remuneration  for  the  work  done.  Edward  Law's  retainer 
for  the  defence  of  Warren  Hastings  brought  with  it  j£500 
— a  sum  which  caused  our  grandfathers  to  raise  their 
hands  in  astonishment  at  the  nabob's  munificence  ;  but 
the  sum  was  in  reality  the  reverse  of  liberal.  In  all, 
Warren  Hastings  paid  his  leading  advocate  considerably 
less  than  four  thousand  pounds  ;  and  if  Law  had  not  con- 
trived to  win  the  respect  of  solicitors  by  his  management 
of  the  defence,  the  case  could  not  be  said  to  have  paid 
him  for  his  trouble.  So  also  the  eminent  advocate,  who 
in  the*  great  case  of  Small  v.  Attwood  received  a  fee  of 
£G000,  was  actually  underpaid.  When  he  made  up  the 
account  of  the  special  outlay  necessitated  by  that  cause, 
and  the  value  of  business  which  the  burdensome  case 
compelled  him  to  decline,  he  had  small  reason  to  con- 
gratulate himself  on  his  remuneration. 

A  statement  of  the  incomes  made  by  chamber-barris- 
ters, and  of  the  sums  realized  by  counsel  in  departments 
of  the  profession  that  do  not  invite  the  attention  of  the 
general  public,  would  astonish  those  uninformed  persons 
who  estimate  the  success  of  a  barrister  by  the  frequency 
6 


122  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

with  which  his  name  appears  in  the  newspaper  reports  of 
trials  and  suits.  The  talkers  of  the  bar  enjoy  more  eclat 
than  the  barristers  who  confine  themselves  to  chamber 
practice,  and  their  labors  lead  to  the  honors  of  the 
bench  ;  but  a  young  lawyer,  bent  only  on  the  acquisition 
of  wealth,  is  more  likely  to  achieve  his  ambition  by  con- 
veyancing or  arbitration-business  than  by  court-work. 
Kenyon  was  never  a  popular  or  successful  advocate,  but 
he  made  £3000  a  year  by  answering  cases.  Charles 
Abbott  at  no  time  of  his  life  could  speak  better  than  a 
vestryman  of  average  ability  ;  but  by  drawing  informa- 
tions and  indictments,  by  writing  opinions  on  cases,  he 
made  the  greater  part  of  the  eight  thousand  pounds  which 
he  returned  as  the  amount  of  his  professional  receipts  in 
1807.  In  our  own  time,  when  that  popular  common 
law  advocate,  Mr.  Edwin  James,  was  omnipotent  with 
juries,  his  income  never  equalled  the  incomes  of  certain 
chamber-practitioners  whose  names  are  utterly  unknown 
to  the  general  body  of  English  society. 


CHAPTEE  XIV. 

JUDICIAL    CORRUPTION. 


TO  a  young  student  making  his  first  researches  beneath 
the  surface  of  English  history,  few  facts  are  more 
painful  and  perplexing  than  the  judicial  corruption  which 
•prevailed  in  every  period  of  our  country's  growth  until 
quiet  recent  times — darkening  the  brightest  pages  of  our 
annals,  and  disfiguring  some  of  the  greatest  chieftains  of 
our  race. 

Where  he  narrates  the  fall  and  punishment  of  De 
Weyland  towards  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
Speed  observes  :  "While  the  Jews  by  their  cruel  usuries 


Money.  123 

had  in  one  way  eaten  up  the  people,  the  justiciars,  like 
another  kind  of  Jews,  had  ruined  them  with  delay  in 
their  suits,  and  enriched  themselves  with  wicked  convic- 
tions." Of  judicial  corruption  in  the  reigns  of  Edward  I. 
and  Edward  H.  a  vivid  picture  is  given  in  a,  political 
ballad,  composed  in  the  time  of  one  or  the  other  of  those 
monarchs.  Of  this  poem  Mr.  Wright,  in  his  '  Political 
Songs,'  gives  a  free  version,  a  part  of  which  runs  thus  : — ■ 

"  Judges  there  are  whom  gifts  and  favorites  control, 
Content  to  serve  the  devil  alone  and  take  from  him  a  toll ; 
If  nature's  law  forbids  the  judge  from  selling  his  decree, 
How  dread  to  those  who  finger  bribes  the  punishment  shall  be. 

"Such  judges  have  accomplices  whom  frequently  they  send 
To  get  at  those  who  claim  some  land,  and  whisper  as  a  friend, 
'  'Tis  I  can  help  you  with  the  judge,  if  you  would  wish  to  plead, 
Give  me  but  half,  I'll  undertake  before  him  you'll  succeed.' 

•'The  clerks  who  sit  beneath  the  judge  are  open-mouthed  as  he, 
As  if  they  were  half-famished  and  gaping  for  a  fee  ; 
Of  those  who  give  no  money  they  soon  pronounce  the  state, 
However  early  they  attend,  they  shall  have  long  to  wait. 

"If  comes  some  noble  lady,  in  beauty  and  in  pride, 
With  golden  horns  upon  her  head,  her  suit  he'll  soon  decide  ; 
But  she  who  has  no  charms,  nor  friends,  and  is  for  gifts  too  poor, 

-  Her  business  all  neglected,  she's  weeping  shown  the  door. 

"But  worse  than  all,  within  the  court  we  some  relators  meet, 
Who  take  from  either  side  at  once,  and  both  their  clients  cheat ; 
The  ushers,  too,  to  poor  men  say,  '  You  labor  here  in  vain, 
Unless  you  tip  us  all  around,  you  may  go  back  again.' 

"The  sheriffs  hard  upon  the  poor  who  cannot  pay  for  rest, 
Drags  them  about  to  every  town,  on  all  assizes  press'd 
Compell'd  to  take  the  oath  prescrib'd  without  objection  made, 
For  if  they  murmur  and  can't  pay,  upon  their  backs  they're  laid. 

"They  enter  any  private  house,  or  abbey  that  they  choose, 
Where  meat  and  drink  and  all  things  else  are  given  as  their  dues; 
And  after  dinner  jewels  too,  or  this  were  all  in  vain, 
Bedels  and  garcons  must  receive,  and  all  that  form  the  train. 


12-4  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

"And  next  must  gallant  robes  be  sent  as  presents  to  their  wives, 
Or  from  the  manor  of  the  host  some  one  his  cattle  drives; 
While  he,  poor  man,  is  sent  to  gaol  upon  some  false  pretence, 
And  pays  at  last  at  double  cost,  ere  he  gets  free  from  thence. 

"I  can't  but  laugh  to  see  their  clerks,  whom  once  I  knew  in  need, 
When  to  obtain  a  bailiwick  they  may  at  last  succeed; 
With  pride  in  gait  and  countenance  and  with  their  necks  erect 
They  lands  and  houses  quickly  buy  and  pleasant  rents  collect. 

"  Grown  rich  they  soon  the  poor  despise,  and  new-made  laws  display, 
Oppress  their  neighbors  and  become  the  wise  men  of  their  day; 
Unsparing  of  the  least  offence,  when  they  can  have  their  will, 
The  hapless  country  all  around  with  discontent  they  fill." 

In  the  fourteenth  century  judicial  corruption  was  so 
general  and  flagrant,  that  cries  came  from  every  quarter 
for  the  punishment  of  offenders.  The  Knights  Hospi- 
tallers' Survey,  made  in  the  year  1338,  gives  us  revelations 
that  confound  the  indiscreet  admirers  of  feudal  manners. 
From  that  source  of  information  it  appears  that  regular 
stipends  were  paid  to  persons  "  tarn  in  curia  domini  regis 
quam  justiciariis,  clericis,  officiariis  et  aliis  ministris,  in 
diversis  curiis  suis,  ac  etiam  aliis  familaribus  magnatum 
tarn  pro  terris  tenementis  redditbus  et  libertatibus  Hos- 
pitalis,  quam  Templariorum,  et  maxime  pro  terris  Tem- 
plariorum  manutenendis."  Of  pensions  to  the  amount 
of  £440  mentioned  in  the  account,  £60  were  paid  to 
judges,  clerks,  and  minor  officers  of  courts.  Robert  de 
Sadington,  the  Chief  Baron,  received  40  marks  annually; 
twice  a  year  the  Knights  Hospitallers  presented  caps  to 
one  hundred  and  forty  officers  of  the  Exchequer  ;  and 
they  expended  200  marks  per  annum  on  gifts  that  were 
distributed  in  law  courts,  "  pro  fawre  habendo,  et  pro 
placitis  habendis,  et  expensis  parliamentorum."  In  that 
age,  and  for  centuries  later,  it  was  customary  for  wealthy 
men  and  great  corporations  to  make  valuable  presents  to 


Money.  125 

the  judges  and  chief  servants  the  king's  courts;  but  it 
was  always  presumed*  that  the  offerings  were  simple  ex- 
pressions of  respect — not  tribute  rendered,  '"'pro  favore 
habendo." 

Bent  on  purifying  the  mortal  atmosphere  of  his  courts, 
Edward  HL  raised  the  salaries  of  his  judges,  and 
imposed  upon  them  such  oaths  that  none  of  their  order 
could  pervert  justice,  or  even  encourage  venal  practices, 
without  breaking  his  solemn  vow*  to  the  king's  majesty. 

From  the  amounts  of  the  royal  fees  or  stipends  paid  to 
Edward  TTT.'s  judges,  it  may  be  vaguely  estimated  how 
far  they  were  dependent  on  gifts  and  court  fees  for  the 
means  of  living-  with  appropriate  state.  John  Rnyvet, 
Chief  Justice  of  the  King's  Bench,  has  .£40  and  100  marks 
per  annum.     The  annual  fee  of  Thomas  de  Ingleby,  the 


*  A  portion  of  the  oath  prescribed  for  judges  in  the  'Ordinances  for  Jus, 
tices,'  20  Edward  HI.,  will  show  the  reader  the  evils  which  called  for  correction 
and  the  care  taken  to  effect  their  cure.  "  Ye  shall  swear,"  ran  the  injunction  to 
which  each  judge  was  required  to  vow  obedience,  "  that  well  and  lawfully  ye  shall 

serve  our  lord  the  king  and  his  people  in  the  office  of  justice  ; and  that  ye 

_  take  not  by  yourself  or  by  other,  privily  or  apertly,  gift  or  reward  of  gold  or  silver, 
nor  any  other  thing  which  may  turn  to  your  profit,  unless  it  be  meat  nor  drink,  and 
that  of  small  value,  of  any  man  that  shall  have  plea  or  process  before,  you,  as 
long  as  the  same  process  sJuxll  be  so  hanging,  nor  after  for  the  same  cause: 
and  that  yeshaU  take  no  fee  as  long  as  ye  shall  be  justice,  nor  robes  of  any  man, 
great  or  small,  but  of  the  king  himself :  and  that  ye  give  none  advice  or  counsel  to 
no  man,  great  or  small,  in  any  case  where  the  king  is  party  ;  &c.  &c.  &c."  The 
clause  forbidding  the  judge  to  receive  gifts  of  actual  suitors  was  a  positive  recogni- 
tion of  his  -right  to  customary  gifts  '  rendered  by  persons  who  had  no  process  hanging 
before  him.  It  should,  moreover,  be  observed  that  in  the  passage,  "  ye  shall  take 
no  fee  as  long  as  ye  shall  be  justice,  nor  robes  of  any  man,"  the  word  "  foe  "  signi- 
fies "  salary,"  and  not  a  single  payment  or  gratuity.  The  judge  was  forbidden  to 
receive  from  any  man  a  fixed  stipend  (by  the  acceptance  of  which  he  would  become 
the  donor's  servant),  or  robes  (the  assumption  of  which  would  be  open  declaration 
of  service) ;  but  he  was  at  liberty  to  accept  the  offerings  which  the  public  were 
wont  to  make  to  men  of  his  condition,  as  well  as  the  sums  (or  '  fees,'  as  they  would 
be  termed  at  the  present  day)  due  on  different  processes  of  his  court.  That  the 
word  '  fee  '  is  thus  used  in  the  ordinance  may  be  seen  from  the  words  "  for  this 
cause  we  have  increased  the  fees  (les  feez)  of  the  same  our  justices,  in  such  manner 
as  it  ought  reasonably  to  suffice  them,"  by  which  language  attention  is  drawn  to 
the  increase  of  judicial  salaries. 


126  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

solitary  puisne  judge  of  the  King's  Bench  at  that  time, 
was  at  first  40  marks  ;  but  he  obtained  an  additional  £40 
when  the  '  fees '  were  raised,  and  he  received  moreover 
£20  a  year  as  a  judge  of  assize.  The  Chief  of  the 
Common  Pleas,  Robert  de  Thrope,  received  £40  per 
per  annum,  payable  during  his  tenure  of  office,  and  an- 
other annual  sum  of  £40  payable  during  his  life.  John  de 
Mowbray,  William  de  Wychingham,  and  William  de 
Fyncheden,  the  other  judges  of  the  Common  Pleas,  re- 
ceived 40  marks  each  as  official  salary,  and  £20  per  annum 
for  their  services  at  assizes.  Mowbray's  stipend  was  subs- 
quently  increased  by  40  marks,  whilst  Wychingham  and 
Fyncheden  received  an  additional  £40  per  annum.  To 
the  Chief  Baron  and  the  other  two  Barons  of  the  Ex- 
chequer annual  fees  of  40  marks  each  were  paid,  the 
Chief  Baron  receiving  £20  per  annum  as  Justice  of  Assize, 
and  one  of  the  puisne  Barons,  Almaric  de  Shirland, 
getting  an  additional  40  marks  for  certain  special  services. 
The  *  Issue  Roll  of  44  Edward  HI.,  1370,'  also  shows  that 
certain  sergeants-at-law  acted  as  Justices  of  Assize,  re- 
ceiving for  their  service  £20  per  annum. 

Throughout  his  reign  Edward  m.  strenuously  exerted 
himself  to  purge  his  law  courts  of  abuses,  and  to  secure 
his  subjects  from  evils  wrought  by  judicial  dishonesty  ;  and 
though  there  is  reason  to  think  that  he  prosecuted  his 
reforms,  and  punished  offending  judges  with  more  impul- 
siveness than  consistency — with  petulance  rather  than 
firmness* — his  action  must  have  produced  many  beneficial 
results.  But  it  does  not  seem  to  have  occurred  to  him 
that  the  system  adopted  by  his  predecessors,  and  en- 

*  Mr.  Foes  observes  :  "  In  1350,  William  de  Thrope,  Chief  Justice  of  the  King's 
Bench,  was  convicted  on  his  own  confession  of  receiving  bribes  to  stay  justice  ;  but 
though  his  property  was  forfeited  to  the  Crown  on  his  condemnation,  the  king  ap- 
pears to  have  relented,  and  to  have  made  him  second  Baron  of  the  Exchequer  in 
May,  1352,  unless  I  am  mistaken  in  supposing  the  latter  to  have  been  the  same 
person." 


Money.  127 

couraged  by  the  usages  of  his  own  time,  was  the  real 
source  of  the  mischief,  and  that  so  long  as  judges  received 
the  greater  part  of  their  remuneration  from  suitors,  fees 
and  the  donations  of  the  public,  enactments  and  procla- 
mations would  be  comparatively  powerless  to  preserve  the 
streams  of  justice  from  pollution.  The  fee-system 
poisoned  the  morality  of  the  law-courts.  From  the 
highest  judge  to  the  lowest  usher,  every  person  connected 
with  a  court  of  justice  was  educated  to  receive  small  sums 
of  money  for  trifling  services,  to  be  always  looking  out 
for  paltry  dues  or  gratuities,  to  multiply  occasions  for 
demanding,  and  reasons  for  pocketing  petty  coins,  to 
invent  devices  for  legitimate  peculation.  In  time  the 
system  produced"  such  complications  of  custom,  right, 
privilege,  claim,  that  no  one  could  say  definitely  how 
much  a  suitor  was  actually  bound  to  pay  at  each  stage  of 
a  suit.  The  fees  had  an  equally  bad  influence  on  the 
public.  Trained  to  approach  the  king's  judges  with 
costly  presents,  to  receive  them  on  their  visits  with  lavish 
hospitality,  to  send  them  offerings  at  the  opening  of  each 
year,  the  rich  and  the  poor  learnt  to  look  on  judicial  de- 
cisions as  things  that  were  bought  and  sold.  In  many 
cases  this  impression  was  not  erroneous.  Judges  were 
forbidden  to  accept  gifts  from  actual  suitors,  or  to  take 
payments  for  judgments  after  their  delivery  ;  but  on  the 
judgment-seat  they  were  often  influenced  by  recollec- 
tions of  the  conduct  of  suitors  who  had  been  munificent 
before  the  commencement  of  proceedings,  and  most  pro- 
bably would  be  equally  munificent  six  months  after 
delivery  of  a  judgment  favorable  to  their  claims.  Hu- 
morous anecdotes  heightened  the  significance  of  patent 
facts.  Throughout  a  shire  it  would  be  told  how  this  suitor 
won  a  judgment  by  a  sumptuous  feast ;  how  that  suitor 
bought  the  justice's  favor  with  a  flask  of  rare  wine,  a 
horse  of  excellent  breed,  a  hound  of  superior  sagacity. 


128  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

In  the  fifteenth  century  the  judge  whose  probity  did 
not  succumb  to  an  excellent  dinner  was  deemed  a  miracle 
of  virtue.  "A  lady,"  writes  Fuller  of  Chief  Justice 
Markham,  who  was  dismissed  from  his  place  in  1470, 
"  would  traverse  a  suit  of  law  against  the  will  of  her 
husband,  who  was  contented  to  buy  his  quiet  by  giving 
her  her  will  therein,  though  otherwise  persuaded  in  his 
judgment  the  cause  would  go  against  her.  This  lady, 
dwelling  in  the  shire  town,  invited  the  judge  to  dinner, 
and  (though  thrifty  enough  herself)  treated  him  with 
sumptuous  entertainment.  Dinner  being  done,  and  the 
cause  being  called,  the  judge  gave  it  against  her.  And 
when,  in  passion,  she  vowed  never  to  invite  the  judge 
again,  *  Nay,  wife,'  said  he,  '  vow  never  to  invite*  a  just 
judge  any  more.' "  It  may  be  safely  affirmed  that  no 
English  lady  of  our  time  ever  tried  to  bribe  Sir  Alexander 
Cockburn  or  Sir  Frederick  Pollock  with  a  dinner  a  la 
Russe. 

By  his  eulogy  of  Chief  Justice  Dyer,  who  died  March 
24,  1582,  Whetstone  gives  proof  that  in  Elizabethan 
England  purity  was  the  exception  rather  than  the  rule 
with  judges:— 

"  And  when  be  spake  he  was  in  speeche  reposde; 

His  eyes  did  search  the  simple  suitor's  harte; 
To  put  by  bribes  his  hands  were  ever  closde, 

His  processe  juste,  he  tooke  the  poore  man's  parte. 

He  rulil  by  lawe  and  listened  not  to  arte, 
These  foes  to  trutbe — loove,  hate,  and  private  gain, 
Which  most  corrupt,  his  conscience  could  not  staine.' 

There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  custom  of  giving 
and  receiving  presents  was  more  general  or  extravagant 
in  the  time  of  Elizabeth  than  in  previous  ages;  but  the 
fuller  records  of  her  splendid  reign  give  greater  promi- 
nence to  the  usage  than  it  obtained  in  the  chronicles  of 
any  earlier  period  of  English  history.  On  each  New 
Year's   day  her  courtiers    gave  her    costly  presents — 


Money.  129 

jewels,  ornaments  of  gold  or  silver  workmanship,  hun- 
dreds of  ounces  of  silver-gilt  plate,  tapestry,  laces,  satin 
dresses,  embroidered  petticoats.  Not  only  did  she  accept 
such  costly  presents  from  men  of  rank  and  wealth,  but 
she  graciously  received  the  donations  of  tradesmen  and 
menials.  Francis  Bacon  made  her  majesty  "a  poor 
oblation  of  a  garment;"  Charles  Smith,  the  dustman, 
threw  upon  the  pile  of  treasure  "  two  bottes  of  cambric." 
The  fashion  thus  countenanced  by  the  queen  was  followed 
in  all  ranks  of  society;  all  men,  from  high  to  low,  re- 
ceiving presents,  as  expressions  of  affection  when  they 
came  from  their  equals,  as  declarations  of  respect  when 
they  came  from  their  social  inferiors.  Each  of  her  great 
officers  of  state  drew  a  handsome  revenue  from  such 
yearly  offerings.  But  though  the  burdens  and  abuses  of 
this  system  were  excessive  under  Elizabeth,  they  increased 
in  enormity  and  number  during  the  reigns  of  the 
Stuarts. 

That  the  salaries  of  the  Elizabethan  judges  were  small  in 
comparison  with  the  sums  which  they  received  in  presents 
and  fees  may  be  seen  from  the  following  Table  of  stipends 
and  allowances  annually  paid,  towards  the  close  of  the 
sixteenth  century: — 

£    s.  & 

"  The  Lord  Cheefe  Justice  of  England:— 

Fee,  Keward  and  Kobes 208    6  8 

"Wyne,  2  tunnes  at  £5  the  tunne 10    0  0 

Allowance  for  being  Justice  of  Assize 20    0  0 

"The Lord  Cheefe  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas:— 

Fee,  Reward,  and  Kobes 141  13  4 

Wyne,  two  tunnes 8    0  0 

Allowance  as  Justice  of  Assize 20    0  0 

Fee  for  keeping  the  Assize  in  the  Augmentation 

Court 12  10  8 


130  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

"Each  of  the  three  Justices  in  these  two  Courts: — 

Fee,  Reward  and  Robes £128  6s.  8d. 

Allowance  as  Justice  of  Assize 20    0    0 

"The  Lord Cheefe  Baron  of  the  Exchequer: — 

Fee 100    0  0 

Lyvery 12  17  8 

Allowance  as  Justice  of  the  Assize 20    0  0 

"Each  of  the  three  Barons: — 

Fee ; 46  12  4 

Lyvery  a  peece 12  17  4 

Allowance  as  Justice  of  Assize 20    0  0 

Prior  to  and  in  the  earlier  part  of  Elizabeth's  reign, 
the  sheriffs  had  been  required  to  provide  diet  and 
lodging  for  judges  travelling  on  circuit,  each  sheriff 
being  responsible  for  the  proper  entertainment  of  judges 
within  the  limits  of  his  jurisdiction.  This  arrangement 
was  very  burdensome  upon  the  class  from  which  the 
sheriffs  were  elected,  as  the  official  host  had  not  only  to 
furnish  suitable  lodging  and  cheer  for  the  justices  them- 
selves, but  also  to  supply  the  wants  of  their  attendants 
and  servants.  The  ostentatious  and  costly  hospitality 
which  law  and  public  opinion  thus  compelled  or  en- 
couraged them  to  exercise  towards  circuiteers  of  all 
ranks  had  seriously  embarrassed  a  great  number  of 
country  gentlemen;  and  the  queen  was  assailed  with 
entreaties  for  a  reform  that  should  free  a  sheriff  of 
small  estate  from  the  necessity  of  either  ruining  himself, 
or  incurring  a  reputation  for  stinginess.  In  consequence 
of  these  urgent  representations,  an  order  of  council, 
bearing  date  February  21,  1574,  decided  "  the  justices 
shall  have  of  her  majesty  several  sums  of  money  out  of 
her  coffers  for  their  daily  diet."  Hence  rose  the  usage 
of  '  circuit  allowances.'  The  sheriffs,  however,  were  still 
bound  to  attend  upon  the  judges,  and  make  suitable  pro- 
vision for  the  safe  conduct  of  the  legal  functionaries  from 
assize  town  to  assize  town; — the  sheriff  of  each  county 


Money.  131 

being  required  to  furnish  a  body-guard  for  the  protection 
of  the  sovereign's  representatives.  This  responsibility 
lasted  till  the  other  day,  when  an  innovation  (of  which 
Mr.  Arcedeckne,  of  Glevering  Hall,  Suffolk,  was  the 
most  notorious,  though  not  the  first  champion ),  substituted 
guards  of  policemen,  paid  by  county-rates,  for  bands  of 
javelin-men  equipped  and  rewarded  by  the  sheriffs.  In 
some  counties  the  javelin-men — remote  descendants  of 
the  mail-clad  knights  and  stalwart  men-at-arms  who 
formerly  mustered  at  the  summons  of  sheriffs — still  do 
duty  with  long  wands  and  fresh  rosettes;  but  they  are 
fast  giving  way  to  the  wielders  of  short  staves. 

Amongst  the  bad  consequences  of  the  system  of 
gratuities  was  the  color  which  it  gave  to  idle  rumors 
and  malicious  slander  against  the  purity  of  upright 
judges. 

"When  Sir  Thomas  More  fell,  charges  of  bribery  were 
preferred  against  him  before  the  Privy  Council.  A 
disappointed  suitor,  named  Parnell,  declared  that  the 
Chancellor  had  been  bribed  with  a  gift-cup  to  decide  in 
favor  of  his  (Parnell's)  adversary.  Mistress  Vaughan, 
the  successful  suitor's  wife,  had  given  Sir  Thomas  the 
cup  with  her  own  hands.  The  fallen  Chancellor  ad- 
mitting that  "  he  had  received  the  cup  as  a  New  Year's 
Gift,"  Lord  Wiltshire  cried,  with  unseemly  exultation, 
"  Lo  !  did  I  not  tell  you,  my  lords,  that  you  would  find 
this  matter  true?"  It  seemed  that  More  had  pleaded 
guilty,  for  his  oath  did  not  permit  him  to  receive  a  New 
Tear's  Gift  from  an  actual  suitor.  "But,  my  lords," 
continued  the  accused  man,  with  one  of  his  characteristic 
smiles,  "  hear  the  other  part  of  my  tale.  After  having 
drunk  to  her  of  wine,  with  which  my  butler  had  filled  the 
cup,  and  when  she  had  pledged  me,  I  restored  it  to  her, 
and  would  listen  to  no  refusal."  It  is  possible  that 
Mistress  Vaughan   did  not  act  with  corrupt  intention, 


132  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

but  merely  in  ignorance  of  the  rule  which  forbade  the 
Chancellor  to  accept  her  present.  As  much  cannot  be 
said  in  behalf  of  Mrs.  Croker,  who,  being  opposed  in  a 
suit  to  Lord  Arundel,  sought  to  win  Sir  Thomas  More's 
favor  by  presenting  him  with  a  pair  of  gloves  contain- 
ing forty  angels.  With  a  courteous  smile  he  accepted  the 
gloves,  but  constrained  her  to  take  back  the  gold.  The 
gentleness  of  this  rebuff  is  charming;  but  the  story  does 
not  tell  more  in  favor  of  Sir  Thomas  than  to  the 
disgrace  of  the  lady  and  the  moral  tone  of  the  society  in 
which  she  lived. 

Readers  should  bear  in  mind  the  part  which  New 
Tear's  Gifts  and  other  customary  gratuities  played  in 
the  trumpery  charges  against  Lord  Bacon.  Adopting 
an  old  method  of  calumny,  the  conspirators  against  his 
fair  fame  represented  that  the  gifts  made  to  him,  in  ac- 
cordance with  ancient  usage,  were  bribes.  For  instance 
Reynel's  ring,  presented  on  New  Year's  day,  was  so 
construed  by  the  accusers;  and  in  his  comment  upon  the 
charge,  Bacon,  who  had  inadvertently  accepted  the  gift 
during  the  progress  of  a  suit,  observes,  "  This  ring  was 
received  certainly  pendente  lite,  and  though  it  were  at 
New  Tear's  tide,  yet  it  was  too  great  a  value  for  a  New 
Tear's  Gift,  though,  as  I  take  it,  nothing  near  the  value 
mentioned  in  the  articles."  So  also  Trevor's  gift  was  a 
New  Tear's  present,  of  which  Bacon  says,  "  I  confess 
and  declare  that  I  received  at  New  Tear's  tide  an  hundred 
pounds  from  Sir  John  Trevor,  and  because  it  came  as  a 
New  Tear's  Gift,  I  neglected  to  inquire  whether  the 
cause  was  ended  or  depending;  but  since  I  find  that 
though  the  cause  was  then  dismissed  to  a  trial  at  law, 
yet  the  equity  is  reserved,  so  as  it  was  in  that  kind 
pendente  lite."  Bacon  knew  that  this  explanation  would 
be  read  by  men  familiar  with  the  history  of  New  Tear's 
Gifts,  and  all  the  circumstances  of  the  ancient  usage; 


Money.  133 

and  it  is  needless  to  say  that  no  man  of  honor  thought 
the  less  highly  of  Bacon  at  that  time,  because  his  pure 
and  guiltless  acceptance  of  customary  presents  was  by 
ingenious  and  unscrupulous  adversaries  made  to  assume 
an  appearance  of  corrupt  compliance. 

How  far  the  Chancellors  of  the  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth centuries  depended  upon  customary  gratuities 
for  their  revenues  may  be  seen  from  the  facts  which  show 
the  degree  of  state  which  they  were  required  to  maintain, 
and  the  inadequacy  of  the  ancient  fees  for  the  main- 
tenance of  that  pomp.  "When  Elizabeth  pressed  Hatton 
for  payment  of  the  sums  which  he  owed  her,  the  Chan- 
cellor lamented  his  inability  to  liquidate  her  just  claims, 
and  urged  in  excuse  that  the  ancient  fees  were  very 
inadequate  to  the  expenses  of  the  Chancellor's  office. 
But  though  Elizabethan  Chancellors  could  not  live  upon 
their  ancient  fees,  they  kept  up  palaces  in  town  and 
country,  fed  regiments  of  lackeys,  and  surpassed  the 
ancient  nobility  in  the  grandeur  of  their  equipages. 
Egerton  —  the  needy  and  illegitimate  son  of  a  rural 
knight,  a  lawyer  who  fought  up  from  the  ranks — not  only 
sustained  the  costly  dignities  of  office,  but  left  to  his 
descendants  a  landed  estate  worth  £8000  per  annum. 
Bacon's  successor  in  the  'marble  chair,'  Lord  Keeper 
Williams,  assured  Buckingham  that  in  Egerton's  time  the 
Chancellor's  lawful  income  was  less  than  three  thousand 
per  annum.  "  The  lawful  revenue  of  the  office  stands 
thus,"  wrote  Williams,  speaking  from  his  intimate  know- 
ledge of  Ellesmeres  affairs,  "or  not  much  above  it  at 
any  time: — in  fines  certain,  £1300  per  annum,  or  there- 
abouts; in  fines  casual,  £1250  or  thereabouts;  in  greater 
writs,  £140;  for  impost  of  wine,  £100— in  all,  £2790; 
and  these  are  all  the  true  means  of  that  great  office." 
It  is  probable  that  Williams  under-stated  the  revenue, 
but  it  is  certain  that  the  income,  apart  from  gratuities, 
was  insufficient. 


134  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

•  The  Chancellor  was  not  more  dependenc  on  customary 
gratuities  than  the  chief  of  the  three  Common  Law 
courts.  At  Westminster  and  on  circuit,  whenever  he  was 
required  to  discharge  his  official  functions,  the  English 
judge  extended  his  hand  for  the  contributions  of  the 
well-disposed.  No  one  thought  of  blaming  judges  for 
their  readiness  to  take  customary  benevolences.  To  take 
gifts  was  a  usage  of  the  profession,  and  had  its  parallel 
in  the  customs  of  every  calling  and  rank  of  life.  The 
clergy  took  dues  in  like  manner  :  from  the  earliest  days 
of  feudal  life  the  territorial  lords  had  supplied  their 
wants  in  the  same  way ;  amongst  merchants  and  yeomen, 
petty  traders  and  servants,  the  system  existed  in  full 
force.  These  presents  were  made  without  any  secrecy. 
The  aldermen  of  borough  towns  openly  voted  presents 
to  the  judges  ;  and  the  judges  received  their  offerings — 
not  as  benefactions,  but  as  legitimate  perquisites.  In 
1620 — just  a  year  before  Lord  Bacon's  fall — the  mu- 
nicipal council  of  Lyme  Kegis  left  it  to  the  "  mayor's  dis- 
cretion" to  decide  "what  gratuity  he  will  give  to  the 
Lord  Chief  Baron  and  his  men"  at  the  next  assizes.  The 
system,  it  is  needless  to  say,  had  disastrous  results.  Em- 
powering the  chief  judge  of  every  court  to  receive  presents 
not  only  from  the  public,  but  from  subordinate  judges, 
inferior  officers,  and  the  bar  ;  and  moreover  empowering 
each  place-holder  to  take  gratuities  from  persons  officially 
or  by  profession  concerned  in  the  business  of  the  courts, 
it  produced  a  complicated  machinery  for  extortion.  By 
presents  the  chief  justices  bought  their  places  from  the 
crown  or  a  royal  favorite  ;  by  presents  the  puisne  justices, 
registrars,  counsel  bought  place  or  favor  from  the  chief  ; 
by  presents  the  attorneys,  sub-registrars,  and  outside 
public  sought  to  gain  their  ends  with  the  humbler  place- 
holders. The  meanest  ushers  of  "Westminster  Hall  took 
coins  from  ragged  scriveners.      Hence  every  place  was 


Money.  135 

actually  bought  and  sold,  the  sum  being  in  most  cases 
very  high.     Sir  James  Ley  offered  the  Duke  of  Buckin- 
ham  £10,000  for   the   Attorney's   place.      At  the   same 
period  the  Solicitor  General's  office  was  sold  for  £4000 
Under  Charles  I.  matters  grew  still  worse  than  they  had 
been  under  his  father.     "When   Sir  Charles  Caesar  con- 
sulted Laud  about  the  worth  of  the  vacant  Mastership  of 
the  Rolls,  the  archbishop  frankly  said,  "that  as  things 
then  stood,  the  place  was  not  likely  to  go  without  more 
money  than  he  thought  any  wise  man  would  give  for  it." 
Disregarding  this  intimation,  Sir  Charles  paid  the  king 
£15,000  for  the  place,  and  added  a  loan  of  £2000.     Sir 
Thomas  Richardson,  at  the  opening  of  the  reign,  gave 
£17,000  for  the   Chiefship   of  the   Common  Pleas.     If 
judges  needed  gifts  before  the  days  when  vacant  seats 
were  put  up  to  auction,  of  course  they  stood   all  the 
more  in  need  of  them  when  they  bought  their  promotions 
with  such  large   sums.     It   is   not  wonderful  that   the 
wearers  of  ermine  repaid  themselves  by  venal  practices. 
The  sale  of  judicial  offices  was  naturally  followed  by  the 
sale  of  judicial  decisions.     The  judges  having  submitted 
to  the  extortions  of    the  king,  the  public  had  to  endure 
the    extortions    of   the    judges.      Corruption     on    the 
bench  produced  corruption  at  the  bar.     Counsel  bought 
the    attention   and  compliance   of  'the   court,'   and  in 
some  cases  sold  their  influence  with  shameless  rascality. 
They  would  take  fees  to  speak  from  one  side  in  a  cause 
and  fees  to  be  silent  from  the  other  side — selling  their 
own  clients  as  coolly  as  judges  sold  the  suitors  of  their 
courts.     Sympathizing  with  the  public,   and   stung .  by 
personal  experience  of  legal  dishonesty,  the  clergy  some- 
times denounced  from  the  pulpit  the  extortions  of  cor- 
rupt   judges   and   unprincipled   barristers.     The   assize 
sermons  of  Charles  L's  reign  were  frequently  seasoned 
with  such  animadversions.     At  Thetford  Assizes,  March, 


136  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

1630,  the  Eev.  Mr.  Ramsay,  in  the  assize-sermon,  spoke 
indignantly  of  judges  who  "favored  causes,"  and  of 
"  counsellors  who  took  fees  to  be  silent."  In  the 
summer  of  1631,  at  the  Bury  Assizes,  "  one  Mr. .  Scott 
made  a  sore  sermon  in  discovery  of  corruption  in  judges 
and  others."  At  Norwich,  the  same  authority,  viz., 
'  Sir  John  Eous's  Diary,'  informs  us — "  Mr.  Greene 
was  more  plaine,  insomuch  that  Judge  Harvey,  in  his 
charge,  broke  out  thus  :  '  It  seems  by  the  sermon  that 
we  are  corrupt,  but  we  know  that  we  can  use  conscience 
in  our  places  as  well  as  the  best  clergieman  of  alt' " 

In  his  ■  Life  and  Death  of  Sir  Matthew  Hale,'  Bishop 
Burnet  tells  a  good  story  of  the  Chief's  conduct  with 
regard  to  a  customary  gift.  "  It  is  also  a  custom,"  says 
the  biographer,  "  for  the  Marshall  of  the  King's  Bench 
to  present  the  judges  of  that  court  with  a  piece  of  plate 
for  a  New  Year's  Gift,  that  for  the  Chief  Justice  being 
larger  than  the  rest.  This  he  intended  to  have  refused, 
but  the  other  judges  told  him  it  belonged  to  his  office, 
and  the  refusing  it  would  be  a  prejudice  to  his  successors; 
so  he  was  persuaded  to  take  it,  but  he  sent  word  to  the 
marshall,  that  instead  of  plate  he  should  bring  him  the 
value  of  it  in  money,  and  when  he  received  it,  he  imme- 
diately sent  it  to  the  prisons  for  the  relief  and  discharge 
of  the  poor  there." 


CHAPTER  XV. 

GIFTS   AND    SALES. 


BY  degrees  the  public  ceased  to  make  presents  to  the 
principal  judges  of  the  kingdom  ;  but  long  after  the 
Chancellor  and  the  three  Chiefs  had  taken  the  last  offer- 
ings of  general  society,  they  continued  to  receive  yearly 


Money.  137 

presents  from  the  subordinate  judges,  placemen,  and 
barristers  of  their  respective  courts.  Lord  Cowper  de- 
serves honor  for  being  the  holder  of  the  seals  who,  by 
refusing  to  pocket  these  customary  donations,  put  an  end 
to  a  very  objectionable  system,  so  far  as  the  Court  of 
Chancery  was  concerned. 

On  being  made  Lord  Keeper,  he  resolved  to  depart 
from  the  custom  of  his  predecessors  for  many  generations, 
who  on  the  first  day  of  each  new  year  had  invariably  en- 
tertained at  breakfast  the  persons  from  whom  tribute  was 
looked  for.  Very  droll  were  these  receptions  in  the  old 
time.  The  repast  at  an  end,  the  guests  forthwith  dis- 
burdened themselves  of  their  gold — the  payers  approach- 
ing the  holder  of  the  seals  in  order  of  rank,  and  laying 
on  his  table  purses  of  money,  which  the  noble  payee 
accepted  with  his  own  hands.  Sometimes  his  lordship 
was  embarrassed  by  a  ceremony  that  required  him  to  pick 
gold  from  the  fingers  of  men,  several  of  whom  he  knew 
to  be  in  indigent  circumstances.  In  Charles  EC's  time 
it  was  observed  that  the  silver-tongued  Lord  Nottingham 
on  such  occasions  always  endeavored  to  hide  his  con- 
fusion under  a  succession  of  nervous  smiles  and  exclama- 
tions—"  Oh,  Tyrant  Cuthtom!— Oh,  Tyrant  Cuthtom!" 

It  is  noteworthy  that  in  relinquishing  the  benefit  of 
these  exactions,  the  Lord  Keeper  feared  unfriendly  cri- 
ticism much  more  than  he  anticipated  public  commenda- 
tion. In  his  diary,  under  date  December  30,  Cowper 
wrote  : — "I  acquainted  my  Lord  Treasurer  with  my 
design  to  refuse  New  Tear's  Gifts,  if  he  had  no  objection 
•  against  it,  as  spoiling,  in  some  measure,  a  place  of  which 
he  had  the  conferring.  He  answered  it  was  not  expected 
of  me,  but  that  I  might  do  as  my  predecessors  had  done; 
but  if  I  refused,  he  thought  nobody  could  blame  me  for 
it."  Anxious  about  the  consequences  of  his  innovation, 
the  new  Lord  Keeper  gave  notice  that  on  January  1, 


138  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

1705-6,  he  would  receive  no  gifts;  but  notwithstanding 
this  proclamation,  several  officers  of  Chancery  and  coun- 
sellors came  to  his  house  with  tribute,  and  were  refused 
admittance.  "  New  Year's  Gifts  turned  back,"  he  wrote 
in  his  diary  at  the  close  of  the  eventful  day,  "  and  pray 
God  it  doth  me  more  credit  and  good  than  hurt,  by 
making  secret  enemies  in  fcece  Romuli."  His  fears  were 
in  a  slight  degree  fulfilled.  The  Chiefs  of  the  three 
Common  Law  Courts  were  greatly  displeased  with  an 
innovation  which  they  had  no  wish  to  adopt;  and  their 
warm  expressions  of  dissatisfaction  induced  the  Lord 
Keeper  to  cover  his  disinterestedness  with  a  harmless 
fiction.  To  pacify  the  indignant  Chiefs  and  the  many 
persons  who  sympathized  with  them,  he  pretended  that 
though  he  had  declined  intentionally  the  gifts  of  the 
Chancery  barristers,  he  had  not  designed  to-  exercise  the 
same  self-denial  with  regard  to  the  gifts  of  Chancery 
officers.* 

The  common  law  chiefs  were  slow  to  follow  in  the  Lord 
Keeper's  steps,  and  many  years  passed  before  the  reform, 
effected  in  Chancery  by  accident  or  design,  or  by  a  lucky 
combination  of  both,  was  adopted  in  the  other  great  courts. 
In  his  memoir  of  Lord  Cowper,  Campbell  observes  :  "  His 
example  with  respect  to  New  Year's  Gifts  was  not  speedily 
followed  ;  and  it  is  said  that  till  very  recently  the  Chief 
Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas  invited  the  officers  of  his 
court  to  a  dinner  at  the  beginning  of  the  year,  when  each 
of  them  deposited  under  his  plate  a  present  in  the  shape 

*  It  should  be  observed  that  many  persons  are  of  opinion  that  the  Lord  Keeper's 
assertion  on  this  point  was  not  an  artifice,  but  a  simple  statement  of  fact.  To 
those  who  take  this  view,  his  lordship's  position  seems  alike  ridiculous  and 
respectable — respectable  because  be  actually  intended  to  forbear  from  taking  the 
barrister's  money;  ridiculous  because,  through  clumsy  and  inadequate  arrange- 
ments he  missed  the  other  and  not  less  precious  gifts  Which  he  did  not  mean  to 
decline.  Anyhow,  the  critics  admit  that  credit  is  due  to  him  for  persisting  in  a 
change — wrought  in  the  first  instance  partly  by  honorable  design  and  partly  by 
accident. 


Money  139 

of  a  Bank  of  England  note,  instead  of  a  gift  of  oxen  roar- 
ing at  his  levee,  as  in  ruder  times."  There  is  no  need  to 
remind  the  reader  in  this  place  of  the  many  veracious  and 
the  many  apocryphal  stories  concerning  the  basket  justi- 
ces of  Fielding's  time — stories  showing  that  in  law  courts 
of  the  lowest  sort  applicants  for  justice  were  accustomed 
to  fee  the  judges  with  victuals  and  drink  until  a  compara- 
tively recent  date. 

Lucky  would  it  have  been  for  the  first  Earl  of  Maccles- 
field if  the  custom  of  selling  places  in  Chancery  had  been  * 
put  an  end  to  forever  by  the  Lord  Keeper  who  abolished 
the  custom  of  New  Year's  Gifts  ;  but  the  judge  who  at 
the  sacrifice  of  one-fourth  of  his  official  income  swept 
away  the  pernicious  "usage  which  had  from  time  imme- 
morial marked  the  opening  of  each  year,  saw  no  reason 
why  he  should  purge  Chancery  of  another  scarcely  less 
objectionable  practice.  Following  the  steps  of  their  pre- 
decessors, the  Chancellors  Cowper,  Harcourt,  and  Mac- 
clesfield sold  subordinate  offices  in  their  court  ;  and  where- 
as all  previous  Chancellors  had  been  held  blameless  for  so 
doing,  Lord  Macclesfield  was  punished  with  official  degra- 
dation, fine,  imprisonment,  and  obloquy. 

By  birth  as  humble*  as  any  layman  who  before  or  since 
hi?  time  has  held  the  seals,  Thomas  Parker,  raised  him- 
self to  the  woolsack  by  great  talents  and  honorable  indus- 
try. As  an  advocate  he  won  the  respect  of  society  and 
his  profession  ;  as  a  judge  he  ranks  with  the  first  ex- 
positors of  English  law.  Although  for  imputed  corrup- 
tion he  was  hurled  with  ignominy  from  his  high  place, 
no  one  has  ventured  to  charge  him  with  venality  on  the 
bench.      That  he  was   a  spotless  character,  or  that  his 


*  The  cases  of  John  Scott,  Philip  Yorke,  and  Edward  Sugden  are  before  the  mind 
of  the  present  writer,  when  he  pens  the  sentence  to  which  this  note  refers.  The 
social  extraction  of  the  y.ngHsh  bar  will  be  considered  in  a  later  chapter  of  this 
work. 


140  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

career  was  marked  by  grandeur  of  purpose,  it  would  be 
difficult  to  establish ;  but  few  Englishmen  could  at  the 
present  time  be  found  to  deny  that  he  was  in  the  main  an 
upright  peer,  who  was  not  wittingly  neglectful  of 'his  duty 
to  the  country  which  had  loaded  him  with  wealth  and 
honors. 

Amongst  the  many  persons  ruined  by  the  bursting  of 
the  South  Sea  Bubble  were  certain  Masters  of  Chancery, 
4who  had  thrown  away  on  that  wild  speculation  large  sums 
of  which  they  were  the  official  guardians.  Lord  Maccles- 
field was  one  of  the  victims  on  whom  the  nation  wreaked 
its  wrath  at  a  crisis  when  universal  folly  had  produced 
universal  disaster.  To  punish  the  masters  for  their  de- 
linquencies was  not  enough  ;  greater  sacrifices  than  a  few 
comparatively  obscure  placemen  were  demanded  by  the 
suitors  and  wards  whose  money  had  been  squandered  by 
the  fraudulent  trustees.  The  Lord  Chancellor  should  be 
made  responsible  for  the  Chancery  defalcations.  That 
was  the  will  of  the  country.  No  one  pretended  that  Lord 
Macclesfield  had  originated  the  practice  which  permitted 
Masters  in  Chancery  to  speculate  with  funds  placed  under 
their  care  ;  attorneys  and  merchants  were  well  aware  that 
in  the  days  of  Harcourt,  Cowper,  Wright,  and  Somers, 
it  had  been  usual  for  masters  to  pocket  interest  accruilfg 
from  suitors'  money  ;  notorious  also  was  it  that,  though 
the  Chancellor  was  theoretically  the  trustee  of  the  money 
confided  to  his  court,  the  masters  were  its  actual  custo- 
dians. Had  the  Chancellor  known  that  the  masters  were 
trafficking  in  dangerous  investments  to  the  probable  loss 
of  the  public,  duty  would  have  required  him  to  examine 
their  accounts  and  place  all  trust-moneys  beyond  their 
reach  ;  but  until  the  crash  came,  Lord  Macclesfield  knew 
neither  the  actual  worthlessness  of  the  South  Sea  Stock, 
nor  the  embarrassed  circumstances  of  the  defaulting  mas- 
ters, nor  the  peril  of  the  persons  committed  to  his  care. 


Money.  141 

The  system  which  permitted  the  masters  to  speculate  with 
money  not  their  own  was  execrable,  but  the  Lord  Chancel- 
lor was  not  the  parent  of  that  system. 

Infuriated  by  the  national  calamity,  in  which  they  were 
themselves  great  sufferers,  the  Commons  impeached  the 
Chancellor,  charging  him  with  high  crimes  and  misde- 
meanors, of  which  the  peers  unanimously  declared  him 
guilty.  In  this  famous  trial  the  great  fact  established 
against  his  lordship  was  that  he  had  sold  masterships  to 
the  defaulters.  It  appeared  that  he  had  not  only  sold  the 
places,  but  had  stood  out  for  very  high  prices  ;  the  infer- 
ence being,  that  in  consideration  of  these  large  sums  he 
had  left  the  purchasers  without  the  supervision  usually 
exercised  by  Chancellors  over  such  officers,  and  had  con- 
nived at  the  practices  which  had  been  followed  by  ruinous 
results.  To  this  it  was  replied,  that  if  the  Chancellor  had 
sold  the  places  at  higher  prices  than  his  predecessors,  he 
had  done  so  because  the  places  had  become  much  more 
valuable  ;  that  at  the  worst  he  had  but  sold  them  to  the 
highest  bidder,  after  the  example  of  his  precursors  ;  that 
the  inference  was  not  supported  by  any  direct  testimony. 

Very  humorous  was  some  of  the  evidence  by  which  the 
sale  of  the  masterships  was  proved.  Master  Elde  de- 
posed that  he  bought  his  office  for  5000  guineas,  the  bar- 
gain being  finally  settled  and  fulfilled  after  a  personal  in- 
terview with  the  accused  lord.  Master  Thurston,  an- 
other purchaser  at  the  high  rate  of  5000  guineas,  paid  his 
money  to  Lady  Macclesfield.  It  must  be  owned  that 
these  sums  were  very  large,  but  their  magnitude  does  not 
fix  fraudulent  purpose  upon  the  Chancellor.  That  he  be- 
lieved himself  fairly  entitled  to  a  moderate  present  on 
appointing  to  a  mastership  is  certain  ;  that  he  regarded 
£2000  as  the  gratuity  which  he  might  accept,  without 
blushing  at  its  publication,  maybe  inferred  from  the  res- 
titution of  £3250  which  he  made  to  one  of  the  purchasers 


142  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

for  £5250  at  a  time  when  he  anticipated  an  inquiry  into 
his  conduct  ;  that  he  felt  himself  acting  indiscreetly  if 
not  wrongfully  in  pressing  for  such  large  sums  is  testi- 
fied by  the  caution  with  which  he  conferred  with  the  pur- 
chasers and  the  secrecy  with  which  he  accepted  their  money. 

His  defence  before  the  peers  admitted  the  sales  of  the 
places,  but  maintained  that  the  transactions  were  legiti- 
mate. 

The  defence  was  of  no  avail.  "When  the  question  of 
guilty  or  not  guilty  was  put  to  the  peers,  each  of  the  no- 
ble lords  present  answered,  "Guilty,  upon  my  honor." 
Sentenced  to  pay  a  fine  of  £30,000,  and  undergo  impris- 
onment until  the  mulct  was  paid,  the  unfortunate  states- 
man bitterly  repented  the  imprudence  which  had  exposed 
him  to  the  vengeance  of  political  adversaries  and  to  the 
enmity  of  the  vulgar.  Whilst  the  passions  roused  by  the 
prosecution  were  at  their  height,  the  fallen  Chancellor 
was  treated  with  much  harshness  by  Parliament,  and 
with  actual  brutality  by  the  mob.  Ever  ready  to  vilify 
lawyers,  the  rabble  seized  on  so  favorable  an  occasion 
for  giving  expression  to  one  of  their  strongest  prejudi- 
ces. Amongst  the  crowds  who  followed  the  Earl  to  the 
Tower  with  curses,  voices  were  heard  to  exclaim  that 
"  Staffordshire  had  produced  the  three  greatest  scoun-: 
drels  of  England — Jack  Sheppard,  Jonathan  Wilde,  and 
Tom  Parker."  Jonathan  Wilde  was  executed  in  1725 — 
the  year  of  Lord  Macclesfield's  impeachment ;  and  Jack 
Sheppard  died  on  the  gallows  at  Tyburn,  November  16, 
1724 

Throughout  the  inquiry,  and  after  the  adverse  verdict, 
George  L  persisted  in  showing  favor  to  the  disgraced 
Chancellor  ;  and  when  the  violent  emotions  of  the  crisis 
had  passed  away  it  was  generally  admitted  by  enlightened 
critics  of  public  events  that  Lord  Macclesfield  had  been 
unfairly  treated.     The  scape-goat  of  popular  wrath,  he 


Money.  143 

suffered  less  for  his  own  faults,  than  for  the  evil  results 
of  a  bad  system  ;  and  at  the  present  time — when  the  si- 
lence of  more  than  a  hundred  and  thirty  years  rests  upon 
his  tomb — Englishmen,  with  one  voice,  acknowledge  the 
valuable  qualities  that  raised  him  to  eminence,  and  regret 
the  proceedings  which  consigned  him  in  his  old  age  to 
humiliation  and  gloom. 


CHAPTEE  XVI. 

A   ROD   PICKLED   BY   WILLIAM   COLE. 

^  A  PRONENESS  to  take  bribes  may  be  generated 
JTx.  from  the  habit  of  taking  fees,"  said  Lord  Keeper 
"Williams  in  his  Inaugural  Address,  making  an  ungenerous 
allusion  to  Francis  Bacon,  whilst  he  uttered  a  statement 
which  was  no  calumny  upon  King  James's  Bench  and  Bar, 
though  it  is  signally  inapplicable  to  lawyers  of  the  present 
day. 

Of  Williams,  tradition  preserves  a  story  that  illustrates 
the  prevalence  of  judicial  corruption  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  and  the  jealousy  with  which  that  Right  Rever- 
end Lord  Keeper  watched  for  attempts  to  tamper  with 
his  honesty.  Whilst  he  was  taking  exercise  in  the  Great 
Park  of  Nonsuch  House,  his  attention  was  caught  by  a 
church  recently  erected  at  the  cost  of  a  rich  Chancery 
suitor.  Having  expressed  satisfaction  with  the  church, 
Williams  inquired  of  George  Minors,  "  Has  he  not  a  suit 
depending  in  Chancery  ?"  and  on  receiving  an  answer  in 
the  affirmative,  observed,  "  he  shall  not  fare  the  worse 
for  building  of  churches."  These  words  being  reported 
to  the  pious  suitor,  he  not  illogically  argued  that  the 
Keeper  was  a  judge  likely  to  be  influenced  in  making  his 


144  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

decisions  by  matters  distinct  from  the  legal  merits  of  the 
case  put  before  him.  Acting  on  this  impression,  the 
good  man  forthwith  sent  messengers  to  Nonsuch  House, 
bearing  gifts  of  fruits  and  poultry  to  the  holder  of  the 
seals.  "  Nay,  carry  them  back,"  cried  the  judge,  looking 
with  a  grim  smile  from  the  presents  to  George  Minors  ; 
"nay,  carry  them  back,  George,  and  tell  your  friend 
that  he  shall  not  fare  the  better  for  sending  of  presents." 
Rich  in  satire  directed  against  law  and  its  professors, 
the  literature  of  the  Commonwealth  affords  conclusive 
testimony  of  the  low  esteem  in  which  lawyers  were  held 
in  the  seventeenth  century  by  the  populace,  and  shows 
how  universal  was  the  belief  that  wearers  of  ermine  and 
gentlemen  of  the  long  robe  would  practice  any  sort  of 
fraud  or  extortion  for  the  sake  of  personal  advantage. 
In  the  pamphlets  and  broadsides,  in  the  squibs  and  bal- 
lads of  the  period,  may  be  found  a  wealth  of  quaint  nar- 
rative and  broad  invective,  setting  forth  the  rascality  of 
judges  and  attorneys,  barristers'  and  scriveners.  Any 
literary  effort  to  throw  contempt  upon  the  law  was  sure 
of  success.  The  light  jesters,  who  made  merry  with  the 
phraseology  and  costumes  of  Westminster  Hall,  were 
only  a  few  degrees  less  welcome  than  the  stronger  and 
more  indignant  scribes  who  cried  aloud  against  the  sins 
and  sinners  of  the  courts.  When  simple  folk  had  ex- 
pended their  rage  in  denunciations  of  venal  eloquence  and 
unjust  judgments,  they  amused  themselves  with  laughing 
at  the  antiquated  verbiage  of  the  rascals  who  sought  to 
conceal  their  bad  morality  under  worse  Latin.  ■  A  New 
Modell,  or  the  Conversion  of  the  Infidell  Terms  of  the 
Law  :  For  the  Better  promoting  of  misunderstanding 
according  to  Common  Sense/  is  a  publication  consisting 
of  a  cover  or  fly-leaf  and  two  leaves,  that  appeared  about 
a  year  before  the  Restoration.  The  wit  is  not  brilliant ; 
its  humor  is  not  free  from  uncleanness  ;  but  its  comic  ren- 


Money.  145 

derings*  of  a  hundred  law  terms  illustrate  the  humor  of 
the  times. 

More  serious  in  aim,  but  not  less  comical  in  result,  is 
William  Cole's  '  A  Rod  for  the  Lawyers.  London,  Printed 
in  the  year  1659.'  The  preface  of  this  mad  treatise  ends 
thus — "  I  do  not  altogether  despair  but  that  before  I  dye 
I  may  see  the  Inns  of  Courts,  or  dens  of  Thieves,  con- 
verted into  Hospitals,  which  were  a  rare  piece  of  justice; 
that  as  they  formerly  have  immured  those  that  robbed 
the  poor  of  houses,  so  they  may  at  last  preserve  the  poor 
themselves." 

Another  boot  touching  on  the  same  subject  and  be- 
longing to  the  same  period,  is,  '  Sagrir,  or  Doomsday 
drawing  nigh  ;  With  Thunder  and  Lightning  to  Lawyers, 
(1653)  by  John  Rogers.' 

Violent,  even  for  a  man  holding  Fifth-Monarchy  views, 
John  Rogers  prefers  a  lengthy  indictment  against  law- 
yers, for  whose  delinquencies'  and  heinous  offence  he  ad- 
mits neither  apology  nor  palliation.  In  his  opinion  all 
judges  deserve  the  death  of  Arnold  and  Hall,  whose  last 
moments  were  provided  for  by  the  hangman.  The  wear- 
ers of  the  long  robe  are  perjurers,  thieves,  enemies  of 
mankind  ;  their  institutions  are  hateful,  and  their  usages 
abominable.  In  olden  time  they  were  less  powerful  and 
rapacious.  But  prosperity  soon  exaggerated  all  their  evil 
qualities.  g  Sketching  the  rise  of  the  profession,  the  author 
observes — "  These  men  would  get  sometimes  Parents, 
Friends,  Brothers,  Neighbors,  sometimes  others  to  be 
(in  their  absence)  Agents,  Factors,  or  Solicitors  for  them 
at  Westminster,  and  as  yet  they  had  no  stately  houses  or 


*  Of  these  renderings  the  subjoined  may  be  taken  as  favorable  specimens  :— 
"  Breve  originale,  original  sinne  ;  capias,  a  catch  to  a  sad  tune  ;  alias  capias,  an- 
other to  the  same  (sad  tune) ;  habeas  corpus,  a  trooper  ;  capias  ad  satisfaciend.,  a 
hangman  :  latitat,  bo-peep  ;  nisi  prius,  first  come  first  served  ;  demurrer,  hum  and 
haw  ;  scandal,  magnat,  down  with  the  Lords." 

7 


146  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

mansions  to  live  in,  as  they  have  now  (called  Inns  of 
Court),  but  they  lodged  like  countrymen  or  strangers  in 
ordinary  Inns.  But  afterwards,  when  the  interests  of 
lawyers  began  to  look  big  (as  in  Edward  HL 's  days),  they 
got  mansions  or  colleges,  which  they  called  Inns,  and  by 
the  king's  favor  had  an  addition  of  honor,  whence  they 
were  called  Inns  of  Court."* 

The  familiar  anecdotes  which  are  told  as  illustrations 
of  Chief  Justice  Hale's  integrity  are  very  ridiculous,  but 
they  serve  to  show  that  the  judges  of  his  time  were 
believed  to  be  very  accessible  to  corrupt  influences.  During 
his  tenure  of  the  Chiefship  of  the  Exchequer,  Hale  rode  the 
Western  Circuit,  and  met  with  the  loyal  reception  usually 
accorded  to  judges  on  circuit  in  his  day.  Amongst  other 
attentions  offered  to  the  judges  on  this  occasion  was  a 
present  of  venison  from  a  wealthy  gentleman  who  was 
concerned  in  a  cause  that  was  in  due  course  called  for 
hearing.  No  sooner  was  the  call  made  than  Chief  Baron 
Hale  resolved  to  place  his  reputation  for  judicial  honesty 
above  suspicion,  and  the  following  scene  occurred: — 

"  Lord  Chief  Baron. — '  Is  this  plaintiff  the  gentleman 
of  the  same  name  who  hath  sent  me  the  venison  ?' 
Judge's  servant. — 'Yes,  please  you,  my  lord.'  Lord  Chief 
Baron. — ■  Stop  a  bit,  then.  Do  not  yet  swear  the  jury. 
I  cannot  allow  the  trial  to  go  on  till  I  have  paid  him  for 
his  buck !'  Plaintiff. — '  I  would  have  your  lordship  to 
know  that  neither  myself  nor  my  forefathers  have  ever 
sold  venison,  and  I  have  done  nothing  to  your  lordship 
which  we  have  not  done  to  every  judge  that  has  come 
'this  circuit  for  centuries    bygone.'      Magistrate  of   the 


*  Even  vacations  stink  in  the  nostrils  of  Mr.  Rogers  ;  for  he  maintains  that  they 
are  not  so  much  periods  when  lawyers  cease  from  their  odious  practices,  as  times 
of  repose  and  recreation  wherein  they  gain  fresh  vigor  and  daring  for  the  commis- 
sion of  further  outrages,  and  allow  their  unhappy  victims  to  acquire  just  enough 
wealth  to  render  them  worth  the  trouble  of  despoiling. 


Money.  147 

County. — 'My  lord,  I  can  confirm  what  the  gentleman 
says  for  truth,  for  twenty  years  back.'  Other  Magis- 
trates.— '  And  we,  my  lord,  know  the  same.'  Lord  Chief 
Baron. — 'That  is  nothing  to  me.  The  Holy  Scripture 
says,  { A  gift  perverteth  the  ways  of  judgment.'  I  will 
not  suffer  the  trial  to  go  on  till  the  venison  is  paid  for. 
Let  my  butler  count  down  the  full  value  thereof.' 
Plaintiff. — '  I  will  not  disgrace  myself  and  my  ancestors 
by  becoming  a  venison  butcher.  From  the  needless  dread 
of  selling  justice,  your  lordship  delays  it.  I  withdraw  my 
record.' " 

As  far  as  good  taste  and  dignity  were  concerned,  the 
gentleman  of  the  West  Country  was  the  victor  in  this 
absurd  contest:  on  the  other  hand,  Hale  had  the  venison 
for  nothing,  and  was  relieved  of  the  trouble  of  hearing 
the  cause. 

In  the  same  manner  Hale  insisted  on  paying  for  six 
loaves  of  sugar  which  the  Dean  and  Chapter  of  Salisbury 
sent  to  his  lodgings,  in  accordance  with  ancient  usage. 
Similar  cases  of  the  judge's  readiness  to  construe  courte- 
sies as  bribes  may  be  found  in  notices  of  trials  and  books 
of  ana. 

A  propos  of  these  stories  of  Hale's  squeamishness,  Lord 
Campbell  tells  the  following  good  anecdote  of  Baron 
Graham :  "  The  late  Baron  Graham  related  to  me  the 
following  anecdote  to  show  that  he  had  more  firmness 
than  Judge  Hale : — '  There  was  a  baronet  of  ancient 
family  with  whom  the  judges  going  the  Western  Circuit 
had  always  been  accustomed  to  dine.  When  I  went  that 
circuit  I  heard  that  a  cause,  in  which  he  was  plaintiff, 
was  coming  on  for  trial:  but  the  usual  invitation  was 
received,  and  lest  the  people  might  suppose  that  judges 
could  be  influenced  by  a  dinner,  I  accepted  it.  The  de- 
fendant, a  neighboring  squire,  being  dreadfully  alarmed 
by  this  intelligence,  said  to  himself,  '  Well,  if  Sir  John 


148  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

entertains  the  judge  hospitably,  I  do  not  see  why  I  should 
not  do  the  same  by  the  jury.'  So  he  invited  to  dinner 
the  whole  of  the  special  jury  summoned  to  try  the  cause. 
Thereupon  the  baronet's  courage  failed  him,  and  he  with- 
drew the  record,  so  that  the  cause  was  not  tried;  and 
although  I  had  my  dinner,  I  escaped  all  suspicion  of 
partiality." 

This  story  puis  the  present  writer  in  mind  of  another 
story  which  he  has  heard  told  in  various  ways,  the  wit  of 
it  being  attributed  by  different  narrators  to  two  judges 
who  have  left  the  bench  for  another  world,  and  a  Master 
of  Chancery  who  is  still  alive.  On  the  present  occasion 
the  Master  of  Chancery  shall  figure  as  the  humorist  of 
the  anecdote. 

Less  than  twenty  years  since,  in  one  of  England's 
southern  counties,  two  neighboring  landed  proprietors 
differed  concerning  their  respective  rights  over  some  un- 
enclosed land,  and  also  about  certain  rights  of  fishing  in 
an  adjacent  stream.  The  one  proprietor  was  the  richest 
baronet,  the  other  the  poorest  squire  of  the  county;  and 
they  agreed  to  settle  their  dispute  by  arbitration.  Our 
Master  in  Chancery,  slightly  known  to  both  gentlemen, 
was  invited  to  act  as  arbitrator  after  inspecting  the  locali- 
ties in  dispute.  The  invitation  was  accepted  and  the 
master  visited  the  scene  of  disagreement,  on  the  under- 
standing that  he  should  give  up  two  days  to  the  matter. 
It  was  arranged  that  on  the  first  day  he  shoidd  walk  over 
the  squire's  estate,  and  hear  the  squire's  uncontradicted 
version  of  the  case,  dining  at  the  close  of  the  day  with 
both  contendents  at  the  squire's  table;  and  that  on  the 
second  day,  having  walked  over  the  baronet's  estate,  and 
heard  without  interruption  the  other  side  of  the  story,  he 
should  give  his  award,  sitting  over  wine  after  dinner  at 
the  rich  man's  table.  At  the  close  of  the  first  day  the 
squire  entertained  his  wealthy  neighbor  and  the  arbitrator 


Money.  149 

at  dinner.  In  accordance  with  the  host's  means,  the 
dinner  was  modest  but  sufficient.  It  consisted  of  three 
fried  soles,  a  roast  leg  of  mutton,  and  vegetables;  three 
pancakes,  three  pieces  of  cheese,  three  small  loaves  of 
bread,  ale,  and  a  bottle  of  sherry.  On  the  removal  of  the 
viands,  three  magnificent  apples,  together  with  a  magnum 
of  port,  were  placed  on  the  table  by  way  of  dessert.  At 
the  close  of  the  second  day  the  trio  dined  at  the  baronet's 
table,  when  it  appeared  that,  struck  by  the  simplicity  of 
the  previous  day's  dinner,  and  rightly  attributing  the 
absence  of  luxuries  to"  the  narrowness  of  the  host's  purse, 
the  wealthy  disputant  had  resolved  not  to  attempt  to  in- 
fluence the  umpire  by  giving  him  a  superior  repast. 
Sitting  at  another  table  the  trio  dined  on  exactly  the 
same  fare, — three  fried  soles,  a  roast  leg  of  mutton,  and 
vegetables;  three  pancakes,  three  pieces  of  cheese,  three 
small  loaves  of  bread,  ale,  and  a  bottle  of  sherry;  and 
for  dessert  three  magnificent  apples,  together  with  a  mag- 
num of  port.  The  dinner  being  over,  the  apples  devoured, 
and  the  last  glass  of  port  drunk,  the  arbitrator  (his  eyes 
twinkling  brightly  as  he  spoke)  introduced  his  award  with 
the  following  exordium: — "Gentlemen,  I  have  with  all 
proper  attention  considered  your  sole  reasons:  I  have 
taken  due  notice  of  your  joint  reasons,  and  I  have  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  your  desfsjerts  are  about  equal." 


CHAPTEE  XVH. 

CHIEF   JUSTICE   POPHA.M. 


ONE  of  the   strangest  cases  of  corruption  amongst 
English  Judges   still  remains  to    be  told   on   the 
slender  authority  which  is  the   sole   foundation  of  the 


150  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

weighty  accusation.  In  comparatively  recent  times  there 
have  not  been  many  eminent  Englishmen  to  whom  '  tra- 
dition's simple  tongue '  has  been  more  hostile  than  Queen 
Elizabeth's  Lord  Chief  Justice,  Popham.  The  younger 
son  of  a  gentle  family,  John  Popham  passed  from  Oxford 
to  the  Middle  Temple,  raised  himself  to  the  honors  of 
the  ermine,  secured  the  admiration  of  illustrious  contem-  ' 
poraries,  in  his  latter  years  gained  abundant  praise  for 
wholesome  severity  towards  footpads,  and  at  his  death 
left  behind  him  a  name  —  which,  tradition  informs  us, 
belonged  to  a  man  who  in  his  reckless  youth,  and  even 
after  his  call  to  the  bar,  was  a  cut-purse  and  highwayman. 
In  mitigation  of  his  conduct  it  is  urged  by  those  who 
credit  the  charge,  that  young  gentlemen  of  his  date 
were  so  much  addicted  to  the  lawless  excitement  of  the 
road,  that  when  he  was  still  a  beardless  stripling,  an  act 
(1  Ed.  VI.  c.  12,  s.  14)  was  passed,  whereby  any  peer  of 
the  realm  or  lord  of  parliament,  on  a  first  conviction  for 
robbery,  was  entitled  to  benefit  of  clergy,  though  he 
could  not  read.  But  bearing  in  mind  the  liberties  which 
rumor  is  wont  to  take  with  the  names  of  eminent  per- 
sons, the  readiness  the  multitude  always  display  to  attri- 
bute light  morals  to  grave  men,  and  the  infrequency  of 
the  cases  where  a  dissolute  youth  is  the  prelude  to  a  man- 
hood of  strenuous  industry  and  an  old  age  of  honor — 
the  cautious  reader  will  require  conclusive  testimony 
before  he  accepts  Popham's  connection  with  '  the  road ' 
as  one  of  the  unassailable  facts  of  history. 

The  authority  for  this  grave,  charge  against  a  famous 
judge  is  John  Aubrey,  the  antiquary,  who  was  born  in 
1627,  just  twenty  years  after  Popham's  death.  "For 
severall  yeares,"  this  collector  says  of  the  Chief  Justice, 
*'  he  addicted  himself  but  little  to  the  studie  of  the  lawes, 
but  profligate  company,  and  was  wont  to  take  a  purse 
with  them.     His  wife  considered  her  and  his  condition, 


Money.  151 

and  at  last  prevailed  with  him  to  lead  another  life  and  to 
stick  to  the  studie  of  the  lawe,  which,  upon  her  importu- 
nity, he  did,  being  then  about  thirtie  years  old."  As 
Popham  was  born  in  1531,  he  withdrew,  according  to  this 
account,  from  the  company  of  gentle  highwaymen  about 
the  year  1561 — more  than  sixty  years  before  Aubrey's 
birth,  and  more  than  a  hundred  years  before  the  col- 
lector committed  the  scandalous  story  to  writing.  The 
worth  of  such  testimony  is  not  great.  Good  stories  are 
often  fixed  upon  eminent  men  who  had  no  part  in  the 
transactions  thereby  attributed  to  them.  If  this  writer 
were  to  put  into  a  private  note-book  a  pleasant  but  un- 
a*uthorized  anecdote  imputing  kleptomania  to  Chief  Jus- 
tice Wiles  (who  died  in  1761),  and  fifty  years  hence  the 
note-book  should  be  discovered  in  a  dirty  corner  of  a 
forgotten  closet  and  published  to  the  world — would  read- 
ers in  the  twentieth  century  be  justified  in  holding  that 
Sir  John  Willes  was  an  eccentric  thief? 

But  Aubrey  tells  a  still  stranger  story  concerning 
Popham,  when  he  sets  forth  the  means  by  which  the 
judge  made  himself  lord  of  Littlecote  Hall  in  Wiltshire. 
The  case  must  be   given  in  the  narrator's  own  words. 

"  Sir  Eichard  Dayrell  of  Littlecot  iD  com.  Wilts,  having 
got  his  lady's  waiting-woman  with  child,  when  her  travell 
came  sent  a  servant  with  a  horse  for  a  midwife,  whom  he 
was  to  bring  hoodwinked.  She  was  brought,  and  layd 
the  woman;  but  as  soon  as  the  child  was  bom,  she  saw 
the  knight  take  the  child  and  murther  it,  and  burn  it  in 
the  fire  in  the  chamber.  She  having  done  her  business 
was  extraordinarily  rewarded  for  her  paines,  and  went 
blindfold  away.  This  horrid  action  did  much  run  in  her 
mind,  and  she  had  a  desire  to  discover  it,  but  knew  not 
where  'tavas.  She  considered  with  herself  the  time  she 
was  riding,  and  how  many  miles  she  might  have  rode  at 
that  rate  in  that  time,  and  that  it  must  be  some  great 


152  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

person's  house,  for  the  roome  was  twelve  foot  high :  and 
she  should  know  the  chamber  if  she  sawe  it.  She  went 
to  a  justice  of  peace,  and  search  was  made.  The  very 
chamber  found.  The  knight  was  brought  to  his  tryall; 
and,  to  be  short,  this  judge  had  this  noble  house,  park, 
and  manor,  and  (I  think)  more,  for  a  bribe  to  save  his 
life.  Sir  John  Popham  gave  sentence  according  to  lawe, 
but  being  a  great  person  and  a  favorite,  he  procured  a 
nolle  prosequi." 

This  ghastly  tale  of  crime  following  upon  crime  has 
been  reproduced  by  later  writers  with  various  exaggera- 
tions and  modifications.  Dramas  and  novels  have  been 
founded  upon  it;  and  a  volume  might  be  made  of  the 
ballads  and  songs  to  which  it  has  given  birth.  In  some 
versions  the  corrupt  judge  does  not  even  go  through  the 
form  of  passing  sentence,  but  secures  an  acquittal  from 
the  jury;  according  to  one  account,  the  mother,  instead 
of  the  infant,  was  put  to  death;  according  to  another, 
the  erring  woman  was  the  murderer's  daughter,  instead 
of  his  wife's  waiting- woman;  another  writer,  assuming 
credit  as  a  conscientious  narrator  of  facts,  places  the 
crime  in  the  eighteenth  instead  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
and  transforms  the  venal  judge  into  a  clever  barrister. 

In  a  highly  seasoned  statement  of  the  repulsive  tradi- 
tion communicated  by  Lord  Webb  Seymour  to  Walter 
Scott,  the  murder  is  described  with  hideous  minuteness. 

Changing  the  midwife  into  'a  Friar  of  orders  grey,' 
and  murdering  the  mother  instead  of  the  baby,  Sir  Walter 
Scott  revived  the  story  in  one  of  his  most  popular  ballads. 
But  of  all  the  versions  of  the  tradition  that  have  come 
under  this  writer's  notice,  the  one  that  departs  most 
widely  from  Aubrey's  statement  is  given  in  Mr.  G.  L. 
Rede's  'Anecdotes  and  Biography,'  (1799). 


Money.  153 


CHAPTER  XVUX 

JUDICIAL   SALARIES. 

FOR  the  last  three  hundred  years  the  law  has  been  a 
lucrative  profession,  our  great  judges  during  that 
period  having  in  many  instances  left  behind  them  large 
fortunes,  earned  at  the  bar  or  acquired  from  official 
emoluments.  The  rental  of  Egerton's  landed  estates  was 
£8,000  per  annum — a  royal  income  in  the  days  of  Eliza- 
beth and  James.  Maynard  left  great  wealth  to  his  grand- 
daughters, Lady  Hobart  and  Mary  Countess  of  Stamford. 
Lord  Mansfield's  favorite  investment  was  mortgage;  and 
towards  the  close  of  his  life  the  income  which  he  derived 
for  moneys  lent  on  sound  mortgages  was  £30,000  per 
annum.  "When  Lord  Kenyon  had  lost  his  eldest  son,  he 
observed  to  Mr.  Justice  Allan  Park — "How  delighted 
George  would  be  to  take  his  poor  brother  from  the  earth 
and  restore  him  to  life,  although  he  receives  £250,000  by 
his  decease."  Lord  Eldon  is  said  to  have  left  to  his  de- 
scendants £500,000;  and  his  brother,  Lord  Stowell,  to 
whom  we  are  indebted  for  the  phrase  'the  elegant  sim- 
plicity of  the  Three  per  Cents.,'  also  acquired  property 
that  at  the  time  of  his  death  yielded  £12,000  per  annum. 

Lord  Stowell's  personalty  was  sworn  under  £230,000, 
and  he  had  invested  considerable  sums  in  land.  It  is 
noteworthy  that  this  rich  lawyer  did  not  learn  to  be  con- 
tented with  the  moderate  interest  of  the  Three  per  Cents, 
until  he  had  sustained  losses  from  bad  speculations. 
Notable  also  is  it  that  this  rich  lawyer — whose  notorious 
satisfaction  with  three  per  cent,  interest  has  gained  for 
him  a  reputation  of  noble  indifference  to  gain — was  in- 
ordinately fond  of  money. 

These  great  fortunes  were  raised  from  fees  taken  in 
7* 


154  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

practice  at  the  bar,  from  judicial  salaries  or  pensions,  and 
from  other  official  gains — such  as  court  dues,  perquisites, 
sinecures,  and  allowances.  Since  the  Revolution  of  1688 
these  last  named  irregular  or  fluctuating  sources  of  judi- 
cial income  have  steadily  diminished,  and  in  the  present 
day  have  come  to  an  end.  Eldon's  receipts  during  his 
tenure  of  the  seals  cannot  be  definitely  stated,  but  more 
is  known  about  them  and  his  earnings  at  the  bar  than  he 
intended  the  world  to  discover,  when  he  declared  in  Par- 
liament "that  in  no  one  year,  since  he  had, been  made 
Lord  Chancellor,  had  he  received  the  same  amount  of 
profit  which  he  enjoyed  while  at  the  bar."  Whilst  he 
was  Attorney  General  he  earned  something  more  than 
£10,000  a  year;  and  in  returns  which  he  himself  made  to 
the  House  of  Commons,  he  admits  that  in  1810  he  re- 
received,  as  Lord  Chancellor,  a  gross  income  of  £22,730, 
from  which  sum,  after  deduction  of  all  expenses,  there 
remained  a  net  income  of  £17,000  per  annum.  He  was 
enabled  also  to  enrich  the  members  of  his  family  with 
presentations  to  offices,  and  reversions  of  places. 

Until  comparatively  recent  times,  judges  were  danger- 
ously ^dependent  on  the  king's  favor;  for  they  not  only 
held  their  offices  during  the  pleasure  of  the  crown,  but  on 
dismissal  they  could  not  claim  a  retiring  pension.  In  the 
seventeenth  century,  an  aged  judge,  worn  out  by  toil  and 
length  of  days,  was  deemed  a  notable  instance  of  royal 
generosity,  if  he  obtained  a  small  allowance  on  relinquish- 
ing his  place  in  court.  Chief  Justice  Hale,  on  his  re- 
tirement, was  signally  favored  when  Charles  II.  gra- 
ciously promised  to  continue  his  salary  till  the  end  of  his 
life — which  was  manifestly  near  its  close.  Under  the 
Stuarts,  the  judges  who  lost  their  places  for  courageous 
fidelity  to  law,  were  wont  to  resume  practice  at  the  bar. 
To  provide  against  the  consequences  of  ejection  from 
office,  great  lawyers,  before  they  consented  to  exchange 


Money  155 

the  gains  of  advocacy  for  the  uncertain  advantages  of  the 
woolsack,  used  to  stipulate  for  special  allowance — over 
and  above  the  ancient  emoluments  of  place.  Lord  Not- 
tingham had  an  allowance  of  £4000  per  annum;  and 
Lord  Guildford,  after  a  struggle  for  better  times,  was 
constrained,  at  a  cost  of  mental  serenity,  to  accept  the 
seals,  with  a  special  salary  of  half  that  sum.* 

From  1688  down  to  the  present  time,  the  chronicler  of 
changes  in  the  legal  profession,  has  to  notice  a  succession 
of  alterations  in  the  system  and  scale  of  judicial  pay- 
ments— all  of  the  innovations  having  a  tendency  to  raise 
the  dignity  of  the  bench.  Under  William  and  Mary,  an 
allowance  (still  continued),  was  made  to  holders  of  the 
seal  on  their  appointment,  for  the  cost  of  outfit  and  equip- 
ages. The  amount  of  this  special  aid  was  £2000,  but 
fees  reduced  it  to  £1843  13s.  Mr.  Foss  observes — "  The 
earliest  existing  record  of  this  allowance,  is  dated  June 
4,  1700,  when  Sir  Nathan  Wright  was  made  Lord  Keeper, 
which  states  it  to  be  the  same  sum  as  had  been  allowed 
to  his  predecessor." 

At  the  same  period,  the  salary  of  a  puisne  judge  was 
but  £1000  a  year — a  sum  that  would  have  been  altoge- 
ther insufficient  for  his  expenses.  A  considerable  part  of 
a  puisne's  remuneration  consisted  of  fees,  perquisites,  and 
presents.  Amongst  the  customary  presents  to  judges  at 
this  time,  may  be  mentioned  the  white  gloves,  which  men 
convicted  of  manslaughter,  presented  to  the  judges  when 
they  pleaded  the  king's  pardon;  the  sugar  loaves,  which 
the  Warden  of  the  Fleet  annually  sent  to  the  judges  of 
the  Common  Pleas;  and  the  almanacs  yearly  distributed 
amongst  the  occupants  of  the  bench  by  the  Stationers' 
Company.     From  one  of  these  almanacs,  in  which  Judge 


*  During  the  Commonwealth,  the  people,  unwilling  to  pay  their  judges  liberally, 
decided  that  a  thousand  a  year  was  a  sufficient  income  for  a  Lord  Commissioner  of 
the  Great  Seal. 


156  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

Rokeby  kept  his  accounts,  it  appears  that  in  the  year  1694, 
the  casual  profits  of  his  place  amounted  to  £694,  4s.  (W. 
Here  is  the  list  of  his  official  incomes,  (net)  for  ten  years: 
—in  1689,  £1378,  10s.;  in  1G90,  £1475,  10s.  10rf.;  in' 1691, 
£2063,  18s.  4d.;  in  1692,  £1570,  Is.  4d.;  in  1693,  £1569, 
13s.  Id.;  in  1694,  £1629,  4s.  6d.;  in  1695,  £1443,  7s.  6d.; 
in  1696,  £1478,  2s.  6d.;  in  1697,  £1498,  lis.  lid.;  in  1698, 
£1631,  10s.  lid.  The  fluctuation  of  the  amounts  in  this 
list,  is  worthy  of  observation;  as  it  points  to  one  bad  con- 
sequence of  the  system  of  paying  judges  by  fees,  gratuities, 
and  uncertain  perquisites.  A  needy  judge,  whose  income 
in  lucky  years  was  over  two  thousand  pounds,  must  have 
been  sadly  pinched  in  years  when  he  did  not  receive 
fifteen  hundred. 

Under  the  heading,  "  The  charges  of  my  coming  ink) 
my  judge's  place,  and  the  taxes  upon  it  the  first  yeare  and 
halfe,"  Judge  Rokeby  gives  the  following  particulars: 

"  1689,  May  11.  To  Mr.  Milton,  Deputy  Clerk  of  the 
Crown,  as  per  note,  for  the  patent  and  swearing  privately, 
£21,  6s.  4d.  May  30.  To  Mr.  English,  charges  of  the 
patent  at  the  Secretary  of  State's  Office,  as  per  note,  said 
to  be  a  new  fee,  £6,  10s.  Inrolling  the  patent  in  Exche- 
quer and  Treasury,  £2,  3s.  4d.  Ju.  27.  Wine  given  as  a 
judge,  as  per  vinter's  note,  £23,  19s.  Ju.  24.  .Cakes, 
given  as  a  judge,  as  per  vintner's  note,  £5,  14s.  6d, 
Second-hand  judge's  robes,  with  some  new  lining,  £31. 
Charges  for  my  part  of  the  patent  for  our  salarys,  to 
Aaron  Smith,  £7,  15s.,  and  the  dormant  warrant  £3. — 
£10,  15s.— £101,  8s.  2d. 

"  Taxes,  £420. 

"  The  charges  of  my  being  made  a  serjeant-at-law,  and 
of  removing  myselfe  and  family  to  London,  and  a  new 
coach  and  paire  of  horses,  and  of  my  knighthood  (all 
which  were  within  the  first  halfe  year  of  my  coming  from 
York),  upon  the  best  calculation  I  can  make  of  them, 
were  att  least  £600." 


Money.  157 

Concerning  the  expenses  attendant  on  his  removal 
from  the  Common  Pleas  to  the  King's  Bench  in  1695 — 
a  removal  which  had  an  injurious  result  upon  his  income 
— the  judge  records:  Nov.  1.  To  Mr.  Partridge,  the 
Crier  of  King's  Bench,  claimed  by  him  as  a  fee  due  to 
the  2  criers,  £2.  Nov.  12.  To  Mr.  Balph  Hall,  in  full  of 
the  Clerk  of  the  Crown's  bill  for  my  patent,  and  swearing 
at  the  Lord  Keeper's,  and  passing  it  through  the  offices, 
.£28,  14s.  2d.  Dec.  6.  To  Mr.  Carpenter,  the  Vintner,  for 
wine  and  bottles,  £22,  10s.  6d.  To  Gwin,  the  Con- 
fectioner, for  cakes,  £5,  3s.  6d.  To  Mr.  Mand  (his  clerk), 
which  he  paid  att  the  Treasury,  and  att  the  pell  for  my 
patent,  allowed  there,  £1,  15s.  Tot.  £60,  2s.  8d."  The 
charges  for  wine  and  cakes  were  consequences  of  a  custom 
which  required  a  nev  judge  to  send  biscuits  and 
macaroons,  sack  and  claret,  to  his  brethren  of  the  bench. 

In  the  reign  of  George  I.  the  salaries  of  the  common 
law  judges  were  raised — the  pensions  of  the  chiefs  being 
doubled,  and  the  puisnes  receiving  fifteen  hundred  instead 
of  a  thousand  pounds. 

Cowper's  incomes  during  his  tenure  of  the  seals  varied 
between  something  over  seven  and  something  under  nine 
thousand  per  annum :  but  there  is  some  reason  to  believe 
that  on  accepting  office,  he  stipulated  for  a  handsome 
yearly  salary,  in  case  he  should  be  called  upon  to  relin- 
quish the  place.  Evelyn,  not  a  very  reliable  authority, 
but  still  a  chronicler  worthy  of  notice  even  on  questions 
of  fact,  says: — "Oct.  1705.  Mr.  Cowper  made  Lord 
Keeper.  Observing  how  uncertain  greate  officers  are  of 
continuing  long  in  their  places,  he  would  not  accept  it 
unless  £2,000  a  yeare  were  given  him  in  reversion  when 
he  was  put  out,  in  consideration  of  his  loss  of  practice. 
His  predecessors,  how  little  time  soever  they  had  the 
seal,  usually  got  £100,000,  and  made  themselves  barons." 
It  is  doubtful  whether  this  bargain  was  actually  made; 


158  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

but  long  after  Cowper's  time,  lawyers  about  to  mount 
the  woolsack,  insisted  on  having  terms  that  should  com- 
pensate them  for  loss  of  practice.  Lord  Macclesfield  had 
a  special  salary  of  £4000  per  annum,  during  his  occupancy 
of  the  marble  chair,  and  obtained  a  grant  of  £12,000  from 
the  king; — a  tellership  in  the  Exchequer  being  also  be- 
stowed upon  his  eldest  son.  Lord  King  obtained  even 
better  terms — a  salary  of  £6000  per  annum  from  the 
Post  Office,  and  £1200  from  the  Hanaper  Office;  this 
large  income  being  granted  to  him  in  consideration  of 
the  injury  done  to  the  Chancellor's  emoluments  by  the 
proceedings  against  Lord  Macclesfield — whereby  it  was 
declared  illegal  for  chancellors  to  sell  the  subordinate 
offices  in  the  Court  of  Chancery.  This  arrangement — 
giving  the  Chancellor  an  increased  salary  in  lieu  of  the 
sums  which  he  could  no  longer  raise  by  sales  of  offices — 
is  conclusive  testimony  that  in  the  opinion  of  the  crown 
Lord  Macclesfield  had  a  right  to  sell  the  masterships. 
The  terms  made  by  Lord  Northington,  in  1766,  on  re- 
signing the  Seals  and  becoming  President  of  the  Council, 
illustrate  this  custom.  On  quitting  the  marble  chair,  he 
obtained  an  immediate  pension  of  £2000  per  annum;  and 
an  agreement  that  the  annual  payment  should  be  made 
£4000  per  annum,  as  soon  as  he  retired  from  the  Presi- 
dency: he  also  obtained  a  reversionary  grant  for  two 
lives  of  the  lucrative  office  of  Clerk  of  the  Hanaper  in 
Chancery. 

In  Lord  Chancellor  King's  time,  amongst  the  fees  and 
perquisites  which  he  wished  to  regulate  and  reform  weie 
the  supplies  of  stationery,  provided  by  the  country  for  the 
great  law-officers.  It  may  be  supposed  that  the  sum 
thus  expended  on  paper,  pens,  and  wax  was  an  insignifi- 
cant item  in  the  national  expenditure;  but  such  was  not 
the  case — for  the  chief  of  the  courts  were  accustomed  to 
place  their  personal  friends  on  the  free-list  for  articles  of 


Money.  159 

stationery.  The  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  a  dignitary  well 
able  to  pay  for  his  own  writing  materials,  wrote  to  Lord 
King,  April  10,  1733:  "My  Lord, — Ever  since  I  had  the 
honor  of  being  acquainted  with  Lord  Chancellors,  I  have 
lived  in  England  and  Ireland  upon  Chancery  paper,  pens, 
and  wax.  I  am  not  willing  to  lose  an  old  advantageous 
custom.  If  your  Lordship  hath  any  to  spare  me  by  my 
servant,  you  will  oblige  your  very  humble  servant, 

"John  Dublin." 

So  long  as  judges  or  subordinate  officers  were  paid  by 
casual  perquisites  and  fees,  paid  directly  to  them  by 
suitors,  a  taint  of  corruption  lingered  in  the  practice  of 
our  courts.  Long  after  judges  ceased  to  sell  injustice, 
they  delayed  justice  from  interested  motives,  and  when 
questions  concerning  their  perquisites  were  raised,  they 
would  sometimes  strain  a  point,  for  the  sake  of  their  own 
private  advantage.  Even  Lord  Ellenborough,  whose 
fame  is  bright  amongst  the  reputations  of  honorable 
men,  could  not  always  exercise  self-control  when  attempts 
were  made  to  lessen  his  customary  profits.  "  I  never," 
writes  Lord  Campbell,  "  saw  this  feeling  at  all  manifest 
itself  in  Lord  Ellenborough  except  once,  when  a  question 
arose  whether  money  paid  into  court  was  liable  to  pound- 
age. I  was  counsel  in  the  case,  and  threw  him  into  a 
furious  passion,  by  strenuously  resisting  the  demand  ; 
the  poundage  was  to  go  into  his  own  pocket — being  pay- 
able to  the  chief  clerk — an  office  held  in  trust  for  him. 
If  he  was  in  any  degree  influenced  by  this  consideration, 
I  make  no  doubt  that  he  was  wholly  unconscious  of.it." 

George  LTL's  reign  witnessed  the  introduction  of 
changes  long  required,  and  frequently  demanded  in  the 
mode  and  amounts  of  judicial  payments.  In  1779,  puisne 
judges  and  barons  received  an  additional  i£400  per  an- 
num, and  the  Chief  Baron  an  increase  of  £500  a  year. 
Twenty  years  later,  Stat.  39,  Geo.  HI.,  c.  110,  gave  the 


160  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

Master  of  the  Kolls,  £4000  a  year,  the  Lord  Chief  Baron 
£4000  a  year,  and  each  of  the  puisne  judges  and  barons, 
£3000  per  annum.  By  the  same  act  also,  life-pensions 
of  £4000  per  annum  wdre  secured  to  retiring  holders  of 
the  seal,  and  it  was  provided  that  after  fifteen  years  of 
service,  or  in  case  of  incurable  infirmity,  the  Chief  Justice 
of  the  King's  Bench  could  claim,  on  retirement,  £3000 
per  annum,  the  Master  of  the  Rolls,  Chief  of  Common 
Pleas,  and  Chief  Baron  £2500  per  annum,  and  each 
minor  judge  of  those  courts  or  Baron  of  the  coif,  £2000 
a  year.  In  1809,  (49  Geo.  HI.,  c.  127)  the  Lord  Chief 
Baron's  annual  salary  was  raised  to  £5000;  whilst  a 
yearly  stipend  of  £4000  was  assigned  to  each  puisne 
judge  or  baron.  By  53  Geo.  HE.,  c.  153,  the  Chiefs  and 
Master  of  the  Rolls,  received  on  retirement  an  additional 
yearly  £800,  and  the  puisnes  an  additional  yearly  £600. 
A  still  more  important  reform  of  George  III.'s  reign  was 
the  creation  of  the  first  Vice  Chancellor  in  March,  1813. 
Rank  was  assigned  to  the  new  functionary  next  after  the 
Master  of  the  Rolls,  and  his  salary  was  fixed  at  £5000 
per  annum. 

Until  the  reign  of  George  IV.  judges  continued  to 
take  fees  and  perquisites  ;  but  by  6  Geo.  IV.  c.  82,  83, 
84,  it  was  arranged  that  the  fees  should  be  paid  into  the 
Exchequer,  and  that  the  undernamed  great  officers  of 
justice  should  receive  the  following  salaries  and  pensions 
on  retirement : — 


Lord*  Chief  Justice  of  King's  Bench 
Lord  Chief  Justice  of  Common  Pleas 
The  Master  of  the  Bolls  .     .     . 

The  Vice  Chancellor  of  England  .  . 
The  Chief  Baron  of  the  Exchequer  . 
Each  Puisne  Baron  or  Judge    .     .     . 


An.  SaL 
£10,000     . 
8000 

An.  Pension 
on  retirement. 

.     .     £4000 

.     .     .       3750 

7000 

.     .     .       3750 

6000     . 

.     .       3750 

7000    . 
5500    , 

.     .       3750 

,     .     .       3500 

Moreover  by  this  Act,  the  second  judge  of  the  King's 


Money.  161 

Bench  was  entitled,  as  in  the  preceding  reign,  to  £40  for 
giving  charge  to  the  grand  jury  in  each  term,  and  pro- 
nouncing judgment  on  malefactors. 

The  changes  with  regard  to  judicial  salaries  under 
William  IV.  were  comparatively  unimportant.  By  2  and 
3  Will.  IV.  c.  116,  the  salaries  of  puisne  judges  and 
barons  were  reduced  to  £5000  a  year;  and  by  2  and  3 
Will.  TV.  c.  Ill,  the  Chancellor's  pension,  on  retirement, 
was  raised  to  £5000,  the  additional  £1000  per  annum 
being  assigned  to  him  in  compensation  of  loss  of  patron- 
age occasioned  by  the  abolition  of  certain  offices.  These 
were  the  most  noticeable  of  William's  provisions  with 
regard  to  the  payment  of  his  judges. 

The  present  reign,  which  has  generously  given  the 
country  two  new  judges,  called  Lord  Justices,  two  addi- 
tional Vice  Chancellors,  and  a  swarm  of  paid  justices,  in 
the  shape  of  county  court  judges  and  stipendiary  magis- 
trates, has  exercised  economy  with  regard  to  judicial 
salaries.  The  annual  stipends  of  the  two  Chief  Justices, 
fixed  in  1825  at  £10,000  for  the  Chief  of  the  King's  Bench, 
and  £8000  for  the  Chief  of  the  Common  Pleas,  have  been 
reduced,  in  the  former  case  to  £8000  per  annum,  in  the 
latter  to  £7000  per  annum.  The  Chancellor's  salary  for 
his  services  as  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Lords,  has  been 
made  part  of  the  £10,000  assigned  to  his  legal  office;  so 
that  his  income  is  no  more  than  ten  thousand  a  year. 
The  salary  of  the  Master  of  the  Rolls  has  been  reduced 
from  £7000  to  £6000  a  year;  the  same  stipend,  together 
with  a  pension  on  retirement  of  £3750,  being  assigned 
to  each  of  the  Lords  Justices.  The  salary  of  a  Vice 
Chancellor  is  £5000  per  annum;  and  after  fifteen  years' 
service,  or  in  case  of  incurable  sickness,  rendering  him 
unable  to  discharge  the  functions  of  his  office,  he  can 
retire  with  a  pension  of  £3500. 

Thurlow  had  no  pension  on  retirement;  but  with  much 


162  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

justice  Lord  Campbell  observes:  "Although  there  was  no 
parliamentary  retired  allowance  for  ex-Chancellors,  they 
were  better  off  than  at  present.  Thurlow  was  a  Teller  of 
the  Exchequer,  and  had  given  sinecures  to  all  his  rela- 
tions, for  one  of  which  his  nephew  now  receives  a  com- 
mutation of  £9000  a  year."  Lord  Loughborough  was 
the  first  ex-Chancellor  who  enjoyed,  on  retirement,  a 
pension  of  £4000  per  annum,  under  Stat.  39  Geo.  HE.  c. 
110.  The  next  claimant  for  an  ex-Chancellor's  pension 
was  Eldon,  on  his  ejection  from  office  in  1806;  and  the 
third  claimant  was  Erskine,  whom  the  possession  of 
the  pension  chd  not  preserve  from  the  humiliation  of 
indigence 

Eldon's  obstinate  tenacity  of  office,  was  attended  with 
one  good  result.  It  saved  the  nation  much  money  by 
keeping  down  the  number  of  ex-Chancellors  entitled  to 
£4000  per  annum.  The  frequency  with  which  Govern- 
ments have  been  changed  during  the  last  forty  years  has 
had  a  contrary  effect,  producing  such  a  strong  bevy  of 
lawyers — who  are  pensioners  as  well  as  peers — that  finan- 
cial reformers  are  loudly  asking  if  some  scheme  cannot 
be  devised  for  lessening  the  number  of  these  costly  and 
comparatively  useless  personages.  At  the  time  when  this 
page  is  written,  there  are  four  ex-Chancellors  in  receipt 
of  pensions — Lords  Brougham,  St.  Leonards,  Cran worth, 
and  Westbury;  but  death  has  recently  diminished  the 
roll  of  Chancellors  by  removing  Lords  Truro  and  Lynd- 
hursi  Not  long  since  the  present  writer  read  a  very 
able,  but  one-sided  article  in  a  liberal  newspaper  that  gave 
the  sum  total  spent  by  the  country  since  Lord  Eldon's 
death  in  ex-Chancellors'  pensions;  and  in  simple  truth  it 
must  be  admitted  that  the  bill  was  a  fearful  subject  for 
contemplation. 


Costume  and  Toilet  163 


PAET  IV. 

COSTUME  AND  TOILET. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

BBIGHT   AND    SAD. 


FROM  the  days  of  the  Conqueror's  Chancellor,  Bald- 
rick,  who  is  reputed  to  have  invented  and  christened 
the  sword-belt  that  bears  his  name,  lawyers  have  been 
conspicuous  amongst  the  best  dressed  men  of  their  times. 
For  many  generations  clerical  discipline  restrained  the 
members  of  the  bar  from  garments  of  lavish  costliness 
and  various  colors,  unless  high  rank  and  personal  influ- 
ence placed  them  above  the  fear  of  censure  and  punish- 
ment; but  as  soon  as  the  law  became  a  lay-profession,  its 
members — especially  those  who  were  still  young — eagerly 
seized  the  newest  fashions  of  costume,  and  expended  so 
much  time  and  money  on  personal  decoration,  that  the 
governors  of  the  Inns  deemed  it  expedient  to  make  rules, 
with  a  view  to  check  the  inordinate  love  of  gay  apparel. 

By  these  enactments,  foppish  modes  of  dressing  the 
hair  was  discountenanced  or  forbidden,  not  less  than  the 
use  of  gaudy  clothes  and  bright  arms.  Some  of  these 
regulations  have  a  quaint  air  to  readers  of  this  generation; 
and  as  Indications  of  manners  in  past  times,  they  deserve 
attention. 

From  Dugdale's '  Origines  Juridiciales,'  it  appears  that 


164  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

in  the  earlier  part  of  Henry  VUX's  reign,  the  students 
and  barristers  of  the  Inns  were  allowed  great  licence  in 
settling  for  themselves  minor  points  of  costume ;  but  be- 
fore that  paternal  monarch  died,  this  freedom  was  les- 
sened. Accepting  the  statements  of  a  previous  chronicler, 
Dugdale  observes  of  the  members  of  the  Middle  Temple 
under  Henry — "  They  have  no  order  for  their  apparell  ; 
but  every  man  may  go  as  him  listeth,  so  that  his  apparell 
pretend  no  lightness  or  wantonness  in  the  wearer;  for, 
even  as  his  apparell  doth  shew  him  to  be,  even  so  he  shall 
be  esteemed  among  them."  But  at  the  period  when  this 
licence  was  permitted  in  respect  of  costume,  the  general 
discipline  of  the  Inn  was  scandalously  lax;  the  very  next 
paragraph  of  the  '  Origines '  showing  that  the  templars 
forbore  to  shut  their  gates  at  night,  whereby  "their 
chambers  were  oftentimes  robbed,  and  many  other  mis- 
demeanors used." 

But  measures  were  taken  to  rectify  the  abuses  and  evil 
manners  of  the  schools.  In  the  thirty-eighth  year  of 
Henry  \JJJL.  an  order  was  made  "  that  the  gentlemen  of 
this  company  "{i.e.,  the  Inner  Temple)  "  should  reform 
themselves  in  their  cut  or  disguised  apparel,  and  not  to 
have  long  beards.  And  that  the  Treasurer  of  this  society 
should  confer  with  the  other  Treasurers  of  Court  for  an 
uniform  reformation."  The  authorities  of  Lincoln's  Inn 
had  already  bestirred  themselves  to  reduce  the  extrava- 
gances of  dress  and  toilet  which  marked  their  younger 
and  more  frivolous  fellow-members.  "And  for  decency 
in  Apparel,"  writes  Dugdale,  concerning  Lincoln's  Inn, 
"at  a  council  held  on  the  day  of  the  Nativity  of  St. 
John  the  Baptist,  23  Hen.  VTH.  it  was  ordered  that  for 
a  continual  rule,  to  be  thenceforth  kept  in  this  house,  no 
gentleman,  being  a  fellow  of  this  house,  should  wear  any 
cut  or  pansid  hose,  or  bryches  ;  or  pansid  doublet,  upon 
pain  of  putting  out  of  the  house." 


Costume  and  Toilet  165 

Ten  years  later  the  authorities  of  Lincoln's  Tnn  (33 
Hen.  V1LL.)  ordered  that  no  member  of  the  society 
"being  in  commons,  or  at  his  repast,  should  wear  a  beard; 
and  whoso  did,  to  pay  double  commons  or  repasts  in  this 
house  during  such  time  as  he  should  have  any  beard." 

By  an  order  of  5  Maii,  1  and  2  Philip  and  Mary,  the 
gentlemen  of  the  Inner  Temple  were  forbidden  to  wear 
long  beards,  no  member  of  the  society  being  permitted  to 
wear  a  beard  of  more  than  three  weeks'  growth.  Every 
breach  of  this  law  was  punished  by  the  heavy  fine  of 
twenty  shillings.  In  4  and  5  of  Philip  and  Mary  it  was 
ordered  that  no  member  of  the  Middle  Temple  "  should 
thenceforth  wear  any  great  bryches  in  their  hoses,  made 
after  the  Dutch,  Spanish,  or  Almon  fashion  ;  or  lawnde 
upon  their  capps ;  or  cut  doublets,  upon  pain  of  iii8  iiiid  for- 
faiture  for  the  first  default,  and  the  second  time  to  be 
expelled  the  house."  At  Lincoln's  Inn,  "in  1  and  2 
Philip  and  Mary,  one  Mr  Wyde,  of  this  house,  was  (by 
special  order  made  upon  Ascension  day)  fined  at  five 
groats,  for  going  in  his  study  gown  in  Cheap-side,  on  a 
Sunday,  about  ten  o'clock  before  noon;  and  in  West- 
minister Hall,  in  the  Term  time,  in  the  forenoon."  Mr. 
Wyde's  offence  was  one  of  remissness  rather  than  of  ex- 
cessive care  for  his  personal  appearance.  With  regard  to 
beards  in  the  same  reign  Lincoln's  Inn  exacted  that  such 
members  "  as  had  beards  should  pay  Vld.  for  every  meal 
they  continued  them;  and  every  man"  was  required  "  to 
be  shaven  upon  pain  of  putting  out  of  commons." 

The  orders  made  under  Elizabeth  with  regard  to  the 
same  or  similar  matters  are  even  more  humorous  and 
diverse.  At  the  Inner  Temple  "it  was  ordered  in  36 
Elizabeth  (16  Junii),  that  if  any  fellow  in  commons,  or 
lying  in  the  house,  did  wear  either  hat  or  cloak  in  the 
Temple  Church,  hall,  buttry,  kitchen,  or  at  the  buttry- 
barr,  dresser,  or  in  the  garden,  he  should  forfeit  for  every 


166  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

such  offence  vi8  viiid*  And  in  42  Eliz.  (8  Febr.)  that 
they  go  not  in  cloaks,  hatts,  bootes,  and  spurs  into  the 
city,  but  when  they  ride  out  of  the  town."  This  order 
was  most  displeasing  to  the  young  men  of  the  legal 
academies,  who  were  given  to  swaggering  amongst  the 
brave  gallants  of  city  ordinaries,  and  delighted  in  showing 
their  rich  attire  at  Paul's.  The  Templar  of  the  Inner 
Temple  who  ventured  to  wear  arms  (except  his  dagger) 
in  hall  committed  a  grave  offence,  and  was  fined  five 
pounds.  "  No  fellow  of  this  house  should  come  into  the 
hall "  it  was  enacted  at  the  Inner  Temple,  38  Eliz.  (20 
Dec. )  "  with  any  weapons,  except  his  dagger,  or  his  knife, 
upon  pain  of  forfeiting  the  sum  of  five  pounds."  In  old 
time  the  lawyers  often  quarrelled  and  drew  swords  in 
hall;  and  the  object  of  this  regulation  doubtless  was  to 
diminish  the  number  of  scandalous  affrays.  The  Middle 
Temple,  in  26  Eliz.,  made  six  prohibitory  rules  with 
regard  to  apparel,  enacting,  "  1.  That  no  ruff  should  be 
worn.  2.  Nor  any  white  color  in  doublets  or  hoses. 
3.  Nor  any  facing  of  velvet  in  gownes,  but  by  such  as 
were  of  the  bench.  4.  That  no  gentleman  should  walk 
in  the  streets  in  their  cloaks,  but  in  gownes.  5.  That 
no  hat,  or  long,  or  curled  hair  be  worn.  6.  Nor  any 
gown,  but  such  as  were  of  a  sad  color."  Of  similar 
orders  made  at  Gray's  Inn,  during  Elizabeth's  reign,  the 
following  edict  of  42  Eliz.  (Feb.  11)  may  be  taken  as  a 
specimen  : — "  That  no  gentleman  of  this  society  do  come 
into  the  hall,  to  any  meal,  with  their  hats,  boots,  or  spurs; 
but  with  their  caps,  decently  and  orderly,  according  to 
the  ancient  order  of  this  house  :  upon  pain,  for  every 
offence,  to  forfeit  hi8  4d,  and  for  the  third  offence  expul- 
sion. Likewise,  that  no  gentleman  of  this  society  do  go 
into  the  city,  or  suburbs,  or  to  walk  in  the  Fields,  other- 
wise than  in  his  gown,  according  to  the  ancient  usage 
of  the  gentlemen  of  the  Inns  of  Court,  upon  penalty  of 


Costume  and  Toilet  167 

iii8  iiiid  for  every  offence;  and  for  the   third,  expulsion 
and  loss  of  his  chamber." 

At  Lincoln's  Inn  it  was  enacted,  "  in  38  Eliz.,  that  if 
any  Fellow  of  this  House,  being  a  commoner  or  repaster, 
should  within  the  precinct  of  this  house  wear  any  cloak, 
boots  and  spurs,  or  long  hair,  he  should  pay  for  every 
offence  five  shillings  for  a  fine,  and  also  to  be  put  out  of 
commons."  The  attempt  to  put  down  beards  at  Lin- 
coln's Inn  failed.  Dugdale  says,  in  his  notes  on  that 
Inn,  "  And  in  1  Eliz.  it  was  further  ordered,  that  no 
fellow  of  this  house  should  wear  any  beard  above  a  fort- 
night's growth;  and  that  whoso  transgresses  therein 
should  for  the  first"  offence  forfeit  3s.  4d.,  to  be  paid  and 
cast  with  his  commons;  and  for  the  second  time  6s.  8d., 
in  like  manner  to  be  paid  and  cast  with  his  commons; 
and  the  third  time  to  be  banished  the  house.  But  the 
fashion  at  that  time  of  wearing  beards  grew  then  so 
predominant,  as  that  the  very  next  year  following,  at  a 
council  held  at  this  house,  upon  the  27th  of  November, 
it  was  agreed  and  ordered,  that  all  orders  before  that 
time  touching  beards  should  be  void  and  repealed."  In 
the  same  year  in  which  the  authorities  of  Lincoln's  Inn 
forbade  the  wearing  of  beards,  they  ordered  that  no 
fellow  of  their  society  "should  wear  any  sword  or 
buckler;  or  cause  any  to  be  born  after  him  into  the 
town."  This  was  the  first  of  the  seven  orders  made  in 
1  Eliz.  for  all  the  Inns  of  Court;  of  which  orders  the 
sixth  runs  thus: — "That  none  should  wear  any  velvet 
upper  cap,  neither  in  the  house  nor  city.  And  that 
none  after  the  first  day  of  January  then  ensuing,  should 
wear  any  furs,  nor  any  manner  of  silk  in  their  apparel, 
otherwise  than  he  could  justifie  by  the  stature  of  apparel, 
made  an.  24  H.  8,  under  the  penalty  aforesaid."  In  the 
eighth  year  of  the  following  reign  it  was  ordained  at 
Lincoln's  Inn  "  that  no  rapier  should  be  worn  in  this 
house  by  any  of  the  society." 


168  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

Other  orders  made  in  the  reign  of  James  I.,  and 
similar  enactments  passed  by  the  Inns  in  still  more  recent 
periods,  can  be  readily  found  on  reference  to  Dugdale  and 
later  writers  upon  the  usages  of  lawyers. 

On  such  matters,  however,  fashion  is  all-powerful;  and 
however  grandly  the  benchers  of  an  Inn  might  talk  in 
their  council-chamber,  they  could  not  prevail  on  their 
youngsters  to  eschew  beards  when  beards  were  the  mode, 
or  to  crop  the  hair  of  their  heads  when  long  tresses  were 
worn  by  gallants  at  court.  Even  in  the  time  of  Elizabeth 
— when  authority  was  most  anxious  that  utter -barristers 
should  in  matters  of  costume  maintain  that  reputation 
for  'sadness'  which  is  the  proverbial  characteristic  of 
apprentices  of  the  law — counsellors  of  various  degrees 
were  conspicuous  throughout  the  town  for  brave  attire. 
If  we  had  no  other  evidence  bearing  on  the  point,  know- 
ledge of  human  nature  would  make  us  certain  that  the 
bar  imitated  Lord  Chancellor  Hatton's  costume.  At 
Gray's  Inn,  Francis  Bacon  was  not  singular  in  loving 
rich  clothes,  and  running  into  debt  for  satin  and  velvet, 
jewels  and  brocade,  lace  and  feathers.  Even  of  that 
contemner  of  frivolous  men  and  vain  pursuits,  Edward 
Coke,  biography  assures  us,  "  The  jewel  of  his  mind  was 
put  into  a  fair  case,  a  beautiful  body  with  comely  coun- 
tenance; a  case  which  he  did  wipe  and  keep  clean,  de- 
lighting in  good  clothes,  well  worn ;  being  wont  to  say 
that  the  outward  neatness  of  our  bodies  might  be  a 
monitor  of  purity  to  our  souls." 

The  courts  of  James  L  and  his  son  drew  some  of  their 
most  splendid  fops  from  the  multitude  of  young  men  who 
were  enjoined  by  the  elders  of  their  profession  to  adhere 
to  a  costume  that  was  a  compromise  between  the  garb  of 
an  Oxford  scholar  and  the  guise  of  a  London  'prentice. 
The  same  was  the  case  with  Charles  II.  's  London. 
Students  and  barristers  outshone  the  brightest  idlers  at 


Costume  and  Toilet  169 

"Whitehall,  whilst  within  the  walls  of  their  Inns  benchers 
still  made  a  faint  show  of  enforcing  old  restrictions  upon 
costume.  At  a  time  when  every  Templar  in  society  wore 
hair — either  natural  or  artificial — long  and  elaborately 
dressed,  Sir  William  Dugdale  wrote,  "  To  the  office  of  the 
chief  butler"  (i.e.,  'of  the  Middle  Temple)  "it  likewise 
appertaineth  to  take  the  names  of  those  that  be  absent 
at  the  said  solemn  revells,  and  to  present  them  to  the 
bench,  as  also  inform  the  bench  of  such  as  wear  hats, 
bootes,  long  hair,  or  the  like  (for  the  which  he  is  com- 
monly out  of  the  young  gentlemen's  favor)." 


CHAPTER,    XX. 


MILLINERY. 


SAITH  Sir  William  Dugdale,  in  his  chapter  concerning 
the  personal  attire  of  judges — "That  peculiar  and 
decent  vestments  have,  from  great  antiquity,  been  used 
in  religious  services,  we  have  the  authority  of  God's  sacred 
precept  to  Moses,  '  Thou  shall  make  holy  rayments  for 
Aaron  and  his  sons,  that  are  to  minister  unto  me,  that  they 
may  be  for  glory  and  beauty."  In  this  light  and  flippant 
age  there  are  ■  men  irreverent  enough  to  smile  at  the 
habiliments  which  our  judges  wear  in  court,  for  the  glory 
of  God  and  the  seemly  embellishment  of  their  own  natural 
beauty. 

Like  the  stuff-gown  of  the  utter-barrister,  the  robes  of 
English  judges  are  of  considerable  antiquity;  but  anti- 
quaries labor  in  vain  to  discover  all  the  facts  relating  to 
their  origin  and  history.  Mr.  Foss  says  that  at  the 
Stuart  Restoration  English  judges  resumed  the  robes  worn 
by  their  predecessors  since  the  time  of  Edward  L ;  but 
8 


170  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

though  the  judicial  robes  of  the  present  day  bear  a  close 
resemblance  to  the  vestments  Worn  by  that  king's  judges, 
the  costume  of  the  bench  has  undergone  many  variations 
since  the  twentieth  year  of  his  reign. 

In  the  eleventh  year  of  Richard  IX  a  distinction  was 
made  between  the  costumes  of  the  chiefs  of  the  King's 
Bench  and  Common  Pleas  and  their  assistant  justices; 
and  at  the  same  time  the  Chief  Baron's  inferiority  to  the 
Chief  Justices  was  marked  by  costume. 

Henry  VI. 's  Chief  Justice  of  the  King's  Bench,  Sir 
John  Fortescue,  in  his  delightful  treatise  '  De  Laudibus 
Legum  Anglise,'  describes  the  ceremony  attending  the 
creation  of  a  justice,  and  minutely  sets  forth  the  chief 
items  of  judicial  costume  in  the  Bench  and  Common  Pleas 
during  his  time.  "  Howbeit,"  runs  Robert  Mulcaster's 
rendering  of  the  '  De  Laudibus,'"  the  habite  of  his  ray- 
ment,  hee  shall  from  time  to  time  forwarde,  in  some 
pointes  change,  but  not  in  all  the  ensignments  thereof. 
For  beeing  serjeaunt  at  lawe,  hee  was  clothed  in  a  long 
robe  priestlyke,  with  a  furred  cape  about  his  shoulders, 
and  thereupon  a  hoode  with  two  labels  such  as  Doctours 
of  the  Lawes  use  to  weare  in  certayne  universityes,  with 
the  above  described  quoyfe.  But  being  once  made  a 
justice,  in  steede  of  his  hoode,  hee  shall  weare  a  cloake 
cloased  upon  his  righte  shoulder,  all  the  other  ornaments 
of  a  serjeant  still  remayning;  sailing  that  a  justyce  shall 
weare  no  partye  coloured  vesture  as  a  serjeant  may.  And 
his  cape  is  furred  with  none  other  than  menever,  whereas 
the  Serjeant's  cape  is  ever  furred  with  whyte  lambe." 
*  Judicial  costume  varied  with  the  fashion  of  the  day 
or  the  whim  of  the  sovereign  in  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries.  Subsequent  generations  saw  the  in- 
troduction of  other  changes;  and  in  the  time  of  Charles 
L  questions  relating  to  the  attire  of  the  common  law 
judges  were  involved  in  so  much  doubt,  and  surrounded 


Costume  and  Toilet  171 

with  so  many  contradictory  precedents  and  traditions, 
that  the  judges  resolvedV)  simplify  matters  by  conference 
and  unanimous  action.  The  result  of  their  deliberation 
was  a  decree,  dated  June  6,  1635,  to  which  Sir  John 
Bramston,  Chief  of  the  King's  Bench,  Sir  John  Finch, 
Chief  of  the  Common  Pleas,  Sir  Humphrey  Davenport, 
Chief  of  the  Exchequer,  and  all  the  minor  judges  of  the 
three  courts,  gave  subscription. 


CHAPTER     XXI. 

WIGS. 


THE  changes  effected  in  judicial  costume  during  the 
Commonwealth,  like  the  reformation  introduced  at 
the  same  period  into  the  language  of  the  law,  were  all 
reversed  in  1660,  when  Charles  IP's  judges  resumed  the 
attire  and  usages  of  their  predecessors  in  the  first  Charles's 
reign.  "When  he  had  satisfied  himself  that  monarchical 
principles  were  sure  of  an  enduring  triumph,  and  that 
their  victory  would  conduce  to  his  own  advantage,  great 
was  young  Samuel  Pepys's  delight  at  seeing  the  ancient 
customs  of  the  lawyers  restored,  one  after  another.  Pn 
October,  1660,  he  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  "  the  Lord 
Chancellor  and  all  the  judges  riding  on  horseback,  and 
going  to  Westminster  Hall,  it  being  the  first  day  of  term." 
In  the  February  of  1663-4  his  eyes  were  gladdened  by 
the  revival  of  another  old  practice.  "  28th  (Lord's  Day). 
Up,  and  walked  to  St.  Paul's,"  he  writes,  "  and,  by 
chance,  it  was  an  extraordinary  day  for  the  Readers  of 
Pnns  of  the  Court  and  all  the  Students  to  come  to  church, 
it  being  an  old  ceremony  not  used  these  twenty-five  years, 
upon  the  first  Sunday  in  Lent.     Abundance  there  was  of 


172  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

students,  more  than  there  was  room  to  seat  but  upon 
forms,  and  the  church  mighty  full.  One  Hawkins 
preached,  an  Oxford  man,  a  good  sermon  upon  these 
words,  '  But  the  wisdom  from  above  is  first  pure,  then 
peaceable.' "  Hawkins  was  no  doubt  a  humorist,  and 
smiled  in  the  sleeve  of  his  Oxford  gown  as  he  told  the 
law-students  that  peace  characterized  the  highest  sort  of 
wisdom. 

But,  notwithstanding  their  zeal  in  reviving  old  customs, 
the  lawyers  of  the  Restoration  introduced  certain  novelties 
into  legal  life.  From  Paris  they  imported  the  wig  which 
still  remains  one  of  the  distinctive  adornments  of  the 
English  barrister;  and  from  the  same  centre  of  civiliza- 
tion they  introduced  certain  refinements  of  cookery,  which 
had  been  hitherto  unknown  in  the  taverns  of  Meet  Street 
and  the  Strand.  In  the  earlier  part  of  the  '  merry 
monarch's  reign,  the  eating-house  most  popular  with 
young  barristers  and  law-students  was  kept  by  a  French 
cook  named  Chattelin,  who,  besides  entertaining  his 
customers  with  delicate  fare  and  choice  wine,  enriched 
our  language  with  the  word  '  cutlet ' — in  his  day  spelt 
costelet. 

In  the  seventeenth  century,  until  wigs  were  generally 
adopted,  the  common  law  judges,  like  their  precursors  for 
several  past  generations,  wore  in  court  velvet  caps,  coifs, 
and  cornered  caps.  Pictures  preserve  to  us  the  appear- 
ance of  justices,  with  their  heads  covered  by  one  or  two 
of  these  articles  of  dress,  the  moustache  in  many  instan- 
ces adorning  the  lip,  and  a  well-trimmed  beard  giving 
point  to  the  judicial  chin.  The  more  common  head-dress 
was  the  coif  and  coif-cap,  of  which  it  is  necessary  to  say 
a  few  words. 

The  coif  was  a  covering  for  the  head,  made  of  white 
lawn  or  silk,  and  common  law  judges  wore  it  as  a  sign 
that  they  were  members  of  the  learned  brotherhood  of 


Costume  and  Toilet  173 

sergeants.  Speaking  of  the  sergeants,  Fortescue,  in  his 
'De  Laudibus,'  says — "Wherefore  to  this  state  and  de- 
gree hath  no  man  beene  hitherto  admitted,  except  he  hath 
first  continued  by  the  space  of  sixteene  years  in  the  said 
generall  studie  of  the  law,  and  in  token  or  signe,  that  all 
justices  are  thus  graduat,  every  one  of  them  alwaies,  while 
he  sitteth  in  the  Kinge's  Courts,  weareth  a  white  quoyfe 
of  silke  ;  which  is  the  principal  and  chief e  insignment  of 
habite,  wherewith  serjeants-at-lawe  in  their  creation  are 
decked.  And  neither  the  justice,  nor  yet  the  serjeaunt, 
shall  ever  put  off  the  quoyfe,  no  not  in  the  kinge's  pres- 
ence, though  he  bee  in  talke  with  his  majestie's  high- 
nesse."  At  times'  it  was  no  easy  matter  to  take  the  coif 
from  the  head  ;  for  the  white  drapery  was  fixed  to  its 
place  with  strings,  which  in  the  case  of  one  notorious 
rascal  were  not  untied  without  difficulty.  In  Henry  HL's 
reign,  when  William  de  Bussy  was  charged  in  open  court 
with  corruption  and  dishonesty,  he  claimed  the  benefit  of 
clerical,  orders,  and  endeavored  to  remove  his  coif  in  or- 
der that  he  might  display  his  tonsure  ;  but  before  he 
could  effect  his  purpose,  an  officer  of  the  court  seized  him 
by  the  throat  and  dragged  him  off  to  prison.  "  Voluit," 
says  Matthew  Paris,  "  ligamenta  coifse  suae  solvere,  ut, 
palam  monstraret  se  tonsuram  habere  clericalem ;  sed 
non  est  permissus.  Satelles  vero  eum  arripiens,  non  per 
coifse  ligamina  sed  per  guttur  eum  apprehendens,  traxit 
ad  carcerem."  From  which  occurrence  Spelman  drew 
the  untenable,  and  indeed,  ridiculous  inference,  that  the 
coif  was  introduced  as  a  veil,  beneath  which  ecclesiastics 
who  wished  to  practice  as  judges  or  counsel  in  the  secu- 
lar courts,  might  conceal  the  personal  mark  of  their 
order. 

The  coif-cap  is  still  worn  in  undiminished  proportions 
by  judges  when  they  pass  sentence  of  death,  and  is  gen- 
erally known  as  the  '  black  cap.'     In  old  time  the  justice, 


174  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

on  making  ready  to  pronounce  the  awful  words  which 
consigned  a  fellow-creature  to  a  horrible  death,  was  wont 
to  draw  up  the  flat,  square,  dark  cap,  that  sometimes 
hung  at  the  nape  of  his  neck  or  the  upper  part  of  his 
shoulder.  Having  covered  the  whiteness  of  his  coif,  and 
partially  concealed  his  forehead  and  brows  with  the  sable 
cloth,  he  proceeded  to  utter  the  dread  sentence  with  sol- 
emn composure  and  firmness.  At  present  the  black  cap 
is  assumed  to  strike  terror  into  the  hearts  of  the  vulgar  ; 
formerly  it  was  pulled  over  the  eyes,  to  hide  the  emotion 
of  the  judge. 

Shorn  of  their  original  size,  the  coif  and  the  coif-cap 
may  still  be  seen  in  the  wigs  worn  by  sergeants  at  the 
present  day.  The  black  blot  which  marks  the  crown  of 
a  sergeant's  wig  is  generally  spoken  of  as  his  coif,  but  this 
designation  is  erroneous.  The  black  blot  is  the  coif-cap ; 
and  those  who  wish  to  see  the  veritable  coif  must  take  a 
near  view  of  the  wig,  when  they  will  see  that  between 
the  black  silk  and  the  horsehair  there  lies  a  circular  piece 
of  white  lawn,  which  is  the  vestige  of  that  pure  raiment 
so  reverentially  mentioned  by  Fortescue.  On  the  general 
adoption  of  wigs,  the  sergeants,  like  the  rest  of  the  bar, 
followed  in  the  wake  of  fashion  :  but  at  first  they  wore 
their  old  coifs  and  caps  over  their  false  hair.  Finding 
this  plan  cumbersome,  they  gradually  diminished  the  size 
of  the  ancient  covering,  until  the  coif  and  cap  became  the 
absurd  thing  which  resembles  a  bald  place  covered  with 
court-plaster  quite  as  much  as  the  rest  of  the  wig  resem- 
bles human  hair. 

Whilst  the  common  law  judges  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, before  the  introduction  of  wigs,  wore  the  undi- 
minished coif  and  coif-cap,  the  Lord  Chancellor,  like  the 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons,  wore  a  hat.  Lord 
Keeper  Williams,  th'e  last  clerical  holder  of  the  seals, 
used  to  wear  in  the  Court  of  Chancery  a  round,  conical 


Costume  and  Toilet  175 

hat.  Bradsliaw,  sitting  as  president  of  the  commissioners 
who  tried  Charles  L,  wore  a  hat  instead  of  the  coif  and 
cap  which  he  donned  at  other  times  as  a  serjeant  of  law. 
Kennett  tells  us  that  "  Mr.  Sergeant  Bradshaw,  the  Presi- 
dent, was  afraid  of  some  tumult  upon  such  new  and  un- 
precedented insolence'  as  that  of  sitting  judge  upon  his 
king ;  and  therefore,  beside  other  defence,  he  had  a  thick 
big-crowned  beaver  hat,  lined  with  plated  steel,  to  ward 
off  blows."  It  is  scarcely  credible  that  Bradshaw  resorted 
to  such  means  for  securing  his  own  safety,  for  in  the  case 
of  a  tumult,  a  hat,  however  strong,  would  have  been  an 
insignificant  protection  against  popular  fury.  If  con- 
spirators had  resolved  to  take  his  life,  they  would  have 
tried  to  effect  their  purpose  by  shooting  or  stabbing  him, 
not  by  knocking  him  on  the  head.  A  steel-plated  hat 
would  have  been  but  a  poor  guard  against  a  bludgeon, 
and  a  still  poorer  defence  against  poignard  or  pistol.  It 
is  far  more  probable  that  in  laying  aside  the  ordinary 
head-dress  of  an  English  common  law  judge,  and  in  as- 
suming a  high-crowned  hat,  the  usual  covering  of  a 
Speaker,  Bradshaw  endeavored  to  mark  the  exceptional 
character  of  the  proceeding,  and  to  remind  the  public 
that  he  acted  under  parliamentary  sanction.  Whatever 
the  wearer's  object,  England  was  satisfied  that  he  had  a 
notable  purpose,  and  persisted  in  regarding  the  act  as 
significant  of  cowardice  or  of  insolence,  of  anxiety  to  keep 
within  the  lines  of  parliamentary  privilege  or  of  readiness 
to  set  all  law  at  defiance.  At  the  time  and  long  after 
Bradshaw's  death,  that  hat  caused  an  abundance  of  dis- 
cussion ;  it  was  a  problem  which  men  tried  in  vain  to 
solve,  an  enigma  that  puzzled  clever  heads,  a  riddle  that 
was  interpreted  as  an  insult,  a  caution,  a  protest,  a  men- 
ace, a  doubt.  Oxford  honored  it  with  a  Latin  inscription, 
and  a  place  amongst  the  curiosities  of  the  university,  and 
its  memory  is  preserved  to  Englishmen  of  the  present  day 
in  the  familiar  lines — 


176  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

"  Where  England's  monarch  once  uncovered  sat, 
And  Bradshaw  bullied  in  a  broad-brimmed  hat" 

Judges  were  by  no  means  unanimous  with  regard  to 
the  adoption  of  wigs,  some  of  them  obstinately  refusing 
to  disfigure  themselves  with  false  tresses,  and  others  dis- 
playing a  foppish  delight  in  the  new  decoration.  Sir 
Matthew  Hale,  who  died  in  1676,  to  the  last  steadily  re- 
fused to  decorate  himself  with  artificial  locks.  The  like- 
ness of  the  Chief  Justice  that  forms  the  frontispiece  to 
Burnet's  memoir  of  the  lawyer,  represents  him  in  his  ju- 
dicial robes,  wearing  his  SS  collar,  and  having  on  his 
head  a  cap— not  the  coif-cap,  but  one  of  the  close-fitting 
skull-caps  worn  by  judges  in  the  seventeenth  century. 
Such  skull-caps,  it  has  been  observed  in  a  prior  page  of 
this  work,  were  worn  by  barristers  under  their  wigs,  and 
country  gentlemen  at  home,  during  the  last  century. 
Into  such  caps  readers  have  seen  Sir  Francis  North  put 
his  fees.  The  portrait  of  Sir  Cresswell  Levinz  (who  re- 
turned to  the  bar  on  dismissal  from  the  bench  in  1686) 
shows  that  he  wore  a  full-bottomed  wig  whilst  he  was  a 
judge  ;  whereas  Sir  Thomas  Street,  who  remained  a  judge 
till  the  close  of  James  II. 's  reign,  wore  his  own  hair  and 
a  coif-cap. 

When  Shaftesbury  sat  in  court  as  Lord  High  Chancellor 
of  England  he  wore  a  hat,  which  Roger  North  is  chari- 
table enough  to  think  might  have  been  a  black  hat.  "  His 
lordship,"  says  the  'Examen,'  "regarded  censure  so  little, 
that  he  did  not  concern  himself  to  use  a  decent  habit  as 
became  a  judge  of  his  station  ;  for  he  sat  upon  the  bench 
in  an  ash-colored  gown  silver-laced,  and  full-ribboned 
pantaloons  displayed,  without  any  black  at  all  in  his  garb, 
unless  it  were  his  hat,  which,  now,  I  cannot  positively  say, 
though*  I  saw  him,  was  so." 

Even  so  late  as  Queen  Anne's  reign,  which  witnessed 
the  introduction  of  three-cornered  hats,  a  Lord  Keeper 


Costume  and  Toilet  177 

wore  his  own  hair  in  court  instead  of  a  wig,  until  he  re- 
ceived the  sovereign's  order  to  adopt  the  venerable  dis- 
guise of  a  full-bottomed  wig.  Lady  Sarah  Cowper  re- 
corded of  her  father,  1705 : — "  The  queen  after  this  was 
persuaded  to  trust  a  Whigg  ministry,  and  in  the  year 
1705,  Octr.,  she  made  my  father  Ld.  Keeper  of  the  Great 
Seal,  in  the  41st  year  of  his  age — 'tis  said  the  youngest 
Lord  Keeper  that  ever  had  been.  He  looked  very  young, 
and  wearing  his  own  hair  made  him  appear  yet  more  so, 
which  the  queen  observing,  obliged  him  to  cut  it  off,  tell- 
ing him  the  world  would  say  she  had  given  the  seals  to  a 
hoy." 

The  young  Lord  Keeper  of  course  obeyed  ;  and  when 
he  appeared  for  the  first  time  at  court  in  a  wig,  his  as- 
pect was  so  grave  and  reverend  that  the  queen  had  to 
look  at  him  twice  before  she  recognized  him.  More  than 
half  a  century  later,  George  II.  experienced  a  similar 
difficulty,  when  Lord  Hardwicke,  after  the  close  of  his 
long  period  of  official  service,  showed  himself  at  court  in 
a  plain  suit  of  black  velvet,  with  a  bag  and  sword.  Fa- 
milar  with  the  appearance  of  the  Chancellor  dressed  in 
full-bottomed  wig  and  robes,  the  king  failed  to  detect  his 
old  friend  and  servant  in  the  elderly  gentleman  who,  in 
the  garb  of  a  private  person  of  quality,  advanced  and 
rendered  due  obeisance.  "  Sir,  it  is  Lord  Hardwicke," 
whispered  a  lord  in  waiting  who  stood  near  His  Majesty's 
person,  and  saw  the  cause  of  the  cold  reception  given  to 
the  ex-Chancellor.  But  unfortunately  the  king  was  not 
more  familiar  with  the  ex-Chancellor's  title  than  his  ap- 
pearance, and  in  a  disastrous  endeavor  to  be  affable  in- 
quired, with  an  affectation  of  interest,  "How  long  has 
your  lordship  been  in  town  ?"  The  peer's  surprise  and 
chagrin  were  great  until  the  monarch,  having  received 
further  instruction  from  the  courtly  prompter  at  his  elbow, 
frankly  apologized  in  bad  English  and  with  noisy  laughter. 
8*  * 


178  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

"  Had  Lord  Hardwicke,"  says  Campbell,  "  worn  such  a 
uniform  as  that  invented  by  George  IV.  ior  ex-Chancel- 
lors (very  much  like  a  Field  Marshal's),  he  could  not 
have  been  mistaken  for  a  common  man." 

The  judges  who  at  the  first  introduction  of  wigs  re- 
fused to  adopt  them  were  prone  to  express  their  dissatis- 
faction with  those  coxcombical  contrivances  when  exhib- 
ited upon  the  heads  of  counsel ;  and  for  some  years  pru- 
dent juniors,  anxious  to  win  the  favorable  opinion  of  anti- 
wig  justices,  declined  to  obey  the  growing  fashion .  Chief 
Justice  Hale,  a  notable  sloven,  conspicuous  amonst  com- 
mon law  judges  for  the  meanness  of  his  attire,  just  as 
Shaftesbury  was  conspicuous  in  the  Court  of  Chancery 
for  foppishness,  cherished  lively  animosity  for  two  sorts 
of  legal  practitioners — attorneys  who  wore  swords,  and 
young  Templars  who  adorned  themselves  with  periwigs. 
Bishop  Burnet  says  of  Hale  :  "  He  was  a  great  encourager 
of  all  young  persons  that  he  saw  followed  their  books 
diligently,  to  whom  he  used  to  give  directions  concerning 
the  method  of  their  study,  with  a  humanity  and  sweet- 
ness that  wrought  much  on  all  that  came  near  him  ;  and 
in  a  smiling,  pleasant  way  he  would  admonish  them,  if  he 
saw  anything  amiss  in  them  ;  particularly  if  they  went  too 
fine  in  their  clothes,  he  would  tell  them  it  did  not  become 
their  profession.  He  was  not  pleased  to  see  students  wear 
long  periwigs,  or  attorneys  go  with  swords,  so  that  such 
men  as  would  not  be  persuaded  to  part  with  those  vani- 
ties, when  they  went  to  him  laid  them  aside  and  went  as 
plain  as  they  could,  to  avoid  the  reproof  which  they  knew 
they  might  otherwise  expect."  In  England,  however, 
barristers  almost  universally  wore  wigs  at  the  close  of  the 
seventeenth  century ;  but  north  of  the  Tweed  advocates 
wore  cocked  hats  and  powdered  hair  so  late  as  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  When  Alexander  Wedderburn 
joined  the  Scotch  bar  in  1754,  wigs  had  not  come  into 
vogue  with  the  members  of  his  profession. 


Costume  and  Toilet.  179 

Many  are  the  good  stories  told  of  judicial  wigs,  and 
amongst  the  b§st  of  them,  is  the  anecdote  which  that 
malicious  talker  Samuel  Rogers  delighted  to  tell  at 
Edward  Law's  expense.  "  Lord  Ellenborough,"  says  the 
•  Table-Talk,'  "  was  once  about  to  go  on  circuit,  when 
Lady  Ellenborough  said  that  she  should  like  to  accom- 
pany him.  He  replied  that  he  had  no  objection  provided 
she  did  not  encumber  the  carriage  with  bandboxes,  which 
were  his  utter  abhorrence.  During  the  first  day's  journey 
Lord  Ellenborough,  happening  to  stretch  his  legs,  struck 
his  foot  against  something  below  the  seat;  he  discovered 
that  it  was  a.  bandbox.  Up  went  the  window,  and  out 
went  the  bandbox.  The  coachman  stopped,  and  the  foot- 
man, thinking  that  the  bandbox  had  tumbled  out  of  the 
window  by  some  extraordinary  chance,  was  going  to  pick 
it  up,  when  Lord  Ellenborough  furiously  called  out, 
'  Drive  on  !'  The  bandbox,  accordingly,  was  left  by  the 
ditch-side.  Having  reached  the  county  town  where  he 
was  to  officiate  as  judge,  Lord  Ellenborough  proceeded 
to  array  himself  for  his  appearance  in  the  court-house. 
'  Now,'  said  he,  '  where 's  my  wig  ? — where  is  my  wig  ?' 
'  My  lord/  replied  his  attendant,  '  it  was  thrown  out  of 
the  carriage  window !' " 

Changing  together  with  fashion,  barristers  ceased  to 
wear  their  wigs  in  society  as  soon  as  the  gallants  and 
bucks  of  the  West  End  began  to  appear  with  their  na- 
tural tresses  in  theatres  and  ball  rooms;  but  the  conser- 
vative genius  of  the  law  has  hitherto  triumphed  over  the 
attempts  of  eminent  advocates  to  throw  the  wig  out  of 
"Westminster  Hall.  When  Lord  Campbell  argued  the 
great  Privilege  case,  he  obtained  permission  to  appear 
without  a  wig;  but  this  concession  to  a  counsel — who, 
on  that  occasion,  spoke  for  sixteen  hours — was  accom- 
panied with  an  intimation  that  "  it  was  not  to  be  drawn 
into  precedent." 


180  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

Less  wise  or  less  fortunate  than  the  bar,  the  judges  of 
England  wore  their  wigs  in  society  after  advocates  of  all 
ranks  and  degrees  had  agreed  to  lay  aside  the  professional 
head-gear  during  hours  of  relaxation.  Lady  Eldon's  good 
taste  and  care  for  her  husband's  comfort,  induced  Lord 
Eldon,  soon  after  his  elevation  to  the  pillow  of  the  Com- 
mon Pleas,  to  beg  the  king's  permission  that  he  might  put 
off  his  judicial  wig  on  leaving  the  courts,  in  which  as 
Chief  Justice  he  would  be  required  to  preside.  The 
petition  did  not  meet  with  a  favorable  reception.  For  a 
minute  George  TJL  hesitated;  whereupon  Eldon  supported 
his  prayer  by  observing,  with  the  fervor  of  an  old- 
fashioned  Tory,  that  the  lawyer's  wig  was  a  detestable 
innovation — unknown  in  the  days  of  James  I.  and  Charles 
the  Martyr,  the  judges  of  which  two  monarchs  would  have 
rejected  as  an  insult  any  proposal  that  they  should  assume 
a  head-dress  fit  only  for  madmen  at  masquerades  or 
mummers  at  country  wakes.  "  What !  what !"  cried  the 
king,  sharply;  and  then,  smiling  mischievously,  as  he 
suddenly  saw  a  good  answer  to  the  plausible  argument, 
he  added — "  True,  my  lord,  Charles  the  First's  judges 
wore  no  wigs,  but  they  wore  beards.  You  may  do  the 
same,  if  you  like.  You  may  please  yourself  about  wear- 
ing or  not  wearing  your  wig;  but  mind,  if  you  please 
yourself  by  imitating  the  old  judges,  as  to  the  head — you 
must  please  me  by  imitating  them  as  to  the  chin.  You 
may  lay  aside  your  wig;  but  if  you  do — you  must  wear  a 
beard."  Had  he  lived  in  these  days,  when  barristers 
occasionally  wear  beards  in  court,  and  judges  are  not  less 
conspicuous  than  the  junior  bar  for  magnitude  of  nose 
and  whisker,  Eldon  would  have  accepted  the  condition. 
But  the  last  year  of  the  last  century,  was  the  very  centre 
and  core  of  that  time  which  may  be  called  the  period  of 
close  shavers;  and  John  Scott,  the  decorous  and  respect- 
able, would  have  endured  martyrdom  rather  than  have 


Costume  and  Toilet  181 

grown  a  beard,  or  have  allowed  his  whiskers  to  exceed 
fhe  limits  of  mutton-chop  whiskers. 

As  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas,  and  subse- 
quently as  Chancellor,  Eldon  wore  his  wig  whenever  he 
appeared  in  general  society;  but  in  the  privacy  of  his 
own  house  he  gratified  Lady  Eldon  by  laying  aside  the 
official  head-gear.  That  this  was  his  usage,  the  gossips 
of  the  law-courts  knew  well;  and  at  Carlton  House,  when 
the  Prince  of  Wales  was  most  indignant  with  the  Chan- 
cellor, who  subsequently  became  his  familiar  friend, 
courtiers  were  wont  to  soothe  the  royal  rage  with  divert- 
ing anecdotes  of  the  attention  which  the  odious  lawyer 
lavished  on  the  natural  hair  that  gave  his  Bessie  so  much 
delight.  On  one  occasion,  when  Eldon  was  firmly  sup- 
porting the  cause  of  the  Princess  of  Wales,  '  the  first  gen- 
tleman of  Europe  '  forgot  common  decency  so  far,  that  he 
made  a  jeering  allusion  to  this  instance  of  the  Chancellor's 
domestic  amiability.  "I  am  not  the  sort  of  person," 
growled  the  prince  with  an  outbreak  of  peevishness,  "  to 
let  my  hair  grow  under  my  wig  to  please  my  wife."  With 
becoming  dignity  Eldon  answered — "  Your  Royal  High- 
ness condescends  to  be  personal.  I  beg  leave  to  with- 
draw;" and  suiting  his  action  to  his  words,  the  Chancellor 
made  a  low  bow  to  the  angry  prince,  and  retired.  The 
prince  sneaked  out  of  the  position  by  an  untruth,  instead 
of  an  apology.  On  the  following  day  he  caused  a  written 
assurance  to  be  convayed  to  the  Chancellor,  that  the  of- 
fensive speech  "was  nothing  personal,  but  simply  a 
proverb — a  proverbial  way  of  saying  a  man  was  governed 
by  his  wife."  It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  expression 
was  not  proverbial,  but  distinctly  and  grossly  personal. 
Lord  Malmesbury's  comment  on  this  affair  is  "Very 
absurd  of  Lord  Eldon ;  but  explained  by  his  having  liter- 
ally done  what  the  prince  said."  Lord  Eldon's  conduct 
absurd!    What  was  the  prince's  ? 


182  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

CHAPTEK      XXH. 

BANDS   AND    COLLARS. 

BANDS  came  into  fashion  with  Englishmen  many 
years  before  wigs,  but  like  wigs  they  were  worn  in 
general  society  before  they  became  a  recognized  and  dis- 
tinctive feature  of  professional  costume.  Ladies  of  rank 
dyed  their  hair,  and  wore  false  tresses  in  Elizabethan 
England;  but  their  example  was  not  extensively  followed 
by  the  men  of  their  time — although  the  courtiers  of  the 
period  sometimes  donned  '  periwinkes,'  to  the  extreme 
disgust  of  the  multitude,  and  the  less  stormy  disapproba- 
tion of  the  polite.  The  frequency  with  which  bands  are 
mentioned  in  Elizabethan  literature,  affords  conclusive 
evidence  that  they  were  much  worn  toward  the  close  of 
the  sixteenth  century;  and  it  is  also  matter  of  certainty 
that  they  were  known  in  England  at  a  still  earlier  period. 
Henry  VTLT.  had  "  4  shirte  bands  of  silver  with  ruffes  to 
the  same,  whereof  one  was  perled  with  golde ;"  and  in 
1638  Peacham  observed,  "  King  Henry  "VTH.  was  the 
first  that  ever  wore  a  band  about  his  neck,  and  that  very 
plain,  without  lace,  and  about  an  inch  or  two  in  depth. 
We  may  see  how  the  case  is  altered,  he  is  not  a  gentle- 
man, or  in  the  fashion,  whose  band  of  Italian  cutwork 
standeth  him  not  at  the  least  in  three  or  four  pounds; 
yea,  a  sempster  in  Holborn  told  me  there  are  of  three- 
score pound  price  apiece."  That  the  fops  of  Charles  I.'s 
reign  were  spending  money  on  a  fashion  originally  set  by 
King  Henry  the  Bluff,  was  the  opinion  also  of  Taylor  the 
"Water  Poet,  who  in  1630  wrote — 

"Now  up  alofte  I  mount  unto  the  ruffe, 
Which  into  foolish  mortals  pride  doth  puffe; 
Yet  ruffes'  antiquity  is  here  but  small — 
'    Within  this  eighty  years  not  one  at  all ; 
For  the  Eighth  Henry  (so  I  understand) 


Costume  and  Toilet.  183 

Was  the  first  king  that  ever  wore  a  band  ; 
And  hut  a,  falling-band,  plaine  with  a  hem; 
All  other  people  knew  no  use  of  them. 
Yet  imitation  in  small  time  began 
To  grow,  that  it  the  kingdom  overran; 
The  little  falling-bands  encreased  to  ruffes, 
Ruffes  (growing  great)  were  waited  on  by  cuffes, 
And  though  our  frailties  should  awake  our  care, 
We  make  our  ruffes  as  careless  as  we  are." 

In  regarding  the  falling-band  as  the  germ  of  the  ruff, 
the  Water-Poet  differs  from  those  writers  who,  with 
greater  appearance  of  reason,  maintain  that  the  ruff  was 
the  parent  of  the  band.  Into  this  question  concerning 
origin  of  species,  there  is  no  occasion  to  enter  on  the 
present  occasion.  It  is  enough  to  state  that  in  the  earlier 
part  of  the  seventeenth  century  bands  or  collars — bands 
stiffened  and  standing  at  the  backward  part,  and  bands 
falling  upon  the  shoulder  and  breast — were  articles  of 
costume  upon  which  men  of  expensive  and  modish  habits 
spent  large  sums. 

In  the  days  of  James  I.,  when  standing  bands  were  still 
the  fashion,  and  falling-bands  had  not  come  in,  the  Inns 
of  Court  men  were  very  particular  about  the  stiffness, 
cut,  and  texture  of  their  collars.  Speaking  of  the  Inns  of 
Court  men,  Sir  Thomas  Overbury,  (who  was  poisoned  in 
1613,  says:  "He  laughs  at  every  man  whose  band  sits 
not  well,  or  that  hath  not  a  fair  shoe-type,  and  is  ashamed 
to  be  in  any  man's  company  who  wears  not  his  cloathes 
well." 

If  portraits  may  be  trusted,  the  falling-band  of  Charles 
I.'s  time,  bore  considerable  resemblance  to  the  falling 
neck-frill,  which  twenty  years  since  was  very  generally 
worn  by  quite  little  boys,  and  is  still  sometimes  seen  on 
urchins  who  are  about  six  years  of  age.  The  bands  worn 
by  the  barristers  and  clergy  of  our  own  time  are  modifica- 
tions of  this  antique  falling-band,  and  like  the  coif  cap  of 
the  modern  sergeant,  they  bear  only  a  faint  likeness  to  their 


184  A  Book  about  Laivyers. 

originals.  But  though  bands — longer  than  those  still 
Vorn  by  clergymen — have  come  to  be  a  distinctive 
feature  of  legal  costume,  the  bar  was  slow  to  adopt 
falling-collars — regarding  them  as  a  strange  and  fanciful 
innovation.  Whitelock's  personal  narrative  furnishes 
pleasant  testimony  that  the  younger  gentry  of  Charles 
L's  England  adopted  the  new  collar  before  the  working 
lawyers. 

"At  the  Quarter-Sessions  of  Oxford,"  says  Whitelock, 
speaking  of  the  year  1635,  when  he  was  only  thirty  years 
of  age,  "  I  was  put  into  the  chair  in  court,  though  I  was 
in  colored  clothes,  a  sword  by  my  side,  and  a  falling- 
band,  which  was  unusual  for  lawyers  in  those  days,  and 
in  this  garb  I  gave  the  charge  to  the  Grand  Jury.  I 
took  occasion  to  enlarge  on  the  point  of  jurisdiction  in 
the  temporal  courts  in  matters  ecclesiastical,  and  the 
antiquity  thereof,  which  I  did  the  rather  because  the 
spiritual  men  began  in  those  days  to  swell  higher  than 
ordinary,  and  to  take  it  as  an  injury  to  the  Church  that 
anything  savoring  of  the  spirituality,  should  be  within 
the  cognisance  of  ignorant  laymen.  The  gentlemen  and 
freeholders  seemed  well  pleased  with  my  charge,  and  the 
management  of  the  business  of  the  sessions;  and  said 
they  perceived  one  might  speak  as  good  sense  in  a  falling- 
band  as  in  a  ruff."  At  this  time  Whitelock  had  been 
about  seven  years  at  the  bar;  but  at  the  Quarter-Sessions 
the  young  Templar  was  playing  the  part  of  country 
squire,  and  as  his  words  show,  he  was  dressed  in  a  fashion 
that  directly  violated  professional  usage. 

Whitelock's  speech  seems  to  have  been  made  shortly 
before  the  bar  accepted  the  falling-band  as  an  article  of 
dress  admissible  in  courts  of  law.  Towards  the  close  of 
Charles's  reign,  such  bands  were  very  generally  worn  in 
Westminster  Hall  by  the  gentlemen  of  the  long  robe; 
and  after  the  Restoration,  a  barrister  would  as  soon  have 


Customs  and  Toilet  185 

thought  of  appearing  at  the  King's  Bench  without  his 
gown  as  without  his  band.  Unlike  the  bar-bands  of  the 
present  time — which  are  lappets  of  fine  lawn,  of  simple 
make — the  bands  worn  by  Charles  II. 's  lawyers  were 
dainty  and  expensive  articles,  such  as  those  which  Peacham 
exclaimed  against  in  the  preceding  reign.  At  that 
date  the  Templar  in  prosperous  circumstances  had  his 
bands  made  entirely  of  point  lace,  or  of  fine  lawn  edged 
with  point  lace;  and  as  he  wore  them  in  society  as  well 
as  in  court,  he  was  constantly  requiring  a  fresh  supply  of 
them.  Few  accidents  were  more  likely  to  ruffle  a 
Templar's  equanimity  than  a  mishap  to  his  band  occurring 
through  his  own  inadvertence  or  carelessness  on  the  part 
of  a  servant.  At  table  the  pieces  of  delicate  lace-work 
were  exposed  to  many  dangers.  Continually  were  they 
stained  with  wine  or  soiled  with  gravy,  and  the  young 
lawyer  was  deemed  a  marvel  of  amiability  who  could  see 
his  point  lace  thus  defiled  and  abstain  from  swearing. 
"I  remember,"  observes  Roger  North,  when  he  is 
showing  the  perfect  control  in  which  his  brother  Francis 
kept  his  temper,  at  his  table  a  stupid  servant  spilt  a 
glass  of  red  wine  upon  his  point  band  and  clothes.  He 
only  wiped  his  face  and  clothes  with  the  napkin,  and 
'Here,'  said  he,  'take  this  away;'  and  no  more." 

In  '  The  London  Spy,'  Ned  Ward  shows  that  during 
Queen  Anne's  reign  legal  practitioners  of  the  lowest  sort 
were  particular  to  wear  bands.  Describing  the  pettifoggor, 
Ward  says,  "  He  always  talks  with  as  great  assurance  as 
if  he  understood  what  he  pretends  to  know;  and  always 
wears  a  band,  in  which  lies  his  gravity  and  wisdom."  At 
the  same  period  a  brisk  trade  was  carried  on  in  West- 
minster Hall  by  the  sempstresses  who  manufactured  bands 
and  cuffs,  lace  ruffles,  and  lawn  kerchiefs  for  the  grave 
counsellors  and  young  gallants  of  the  Inns  of  Court. 
"  From  thence,"  says  the  author  of  '  The  London  Spy,' 


186  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

"  we  walked  down  by  the  sempstresses,  who  were  very 
nicely  digitising  and  pleating  turnsovers  and  ruffles  for 
the  young  students,  and  coaxing  them  with  amorous 
looks,  obliging  cant,  and  inviting  gestures,  to  give  so  ex- 
travagant a  price  for  what  they  buy." 

From  collars  of  lace  and  lawn,  let  us  turn  to  collars  of 
precious  metal. 

Antiquarians  have  unanimously  rejected  the  fanciful 
legend  adopted  by  Dugdale  concerning  the  SS  collar,  as 
well  as  many  not  less  ingenious  interpretations  of  the 
mystic  letters;  and  at  the  present  time  it  is  almost  unani- 
mously settled  that  the  SS  collar  is  the  old  Lancastrian 
badge,  corresponding  to  the  Yorkist  collar  of  Roses  and 
Suns,  and  that  the  S  is  either  the  initial  of  the  senti- 
mental word  '  Souvenez,'  or,  or  as  Mr.  Beltz  maintains,  the 
initial  letter  of  the  sentimental  motto, '  Souvenez-vous  de 
moi.'  In  Mr.  Foss's  valuable  work,  'The  Judges  of 
England,'  at  the  commencement  of  the  seventh  volume, 
the  curious  reader  may  find  an  excellent  summary  of  all 
that  has  been  or  can  be  said  about  the  origin  of  this 
piece  of  feudal  livery,  which,  having  at  one  time  been 
very  generally  assumed  by  all  gentle  and  fairly  prosperous 
partisans  of  the  House  of  Lancaster,  has  for  many 
generations  been  the  distinctive  badge  of  a  few  official 
persons.  In  the  second  year  of  Henry  IV.  an  ordinance 
forbade  knights  and  Esquires  to  wear  the  collar,  save  in 
the  king's  presence;  and  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VLTI., 
the  privilege  of  wearing  the  collar  was  taken  away  from 
simple  esquires  by  the  '  Acte  for  Reformacyon  of  Excesse 
in  Apparayle,'  24  Henry  VHI.  c.  13,  which  ordained 
"  That  no  man  oneless  he  be  a  knight  .  .  .  weare  any 
color  of  Gold,  named  a  color  of  S."  Gradually  knights 
and  non-official  persons  relinquished  the  decoration;  and 
in  our  own  day  the  right  to  bear  it  is  restricted  to  the 
two  Chief  Justices,  the  Chief  Baron,  the  sergeant-trum- 


Costume  and  Toilet  187 

petor,  and  all  the  officers  of  the  Heralds'  College,  pur- 
suivants excepted;  "unless,"  adds  Mr.  Foss,  "the  Lord 
Mayor  of  London  is  to  be  included,  whose  collar  is 
somewhat  similar,  and  is  composed  of  twenty-eight  SS, 
fourteen  roses,  thirteen  knots,  and  measures  sixty-four 
inches." 


CHAPTER      XXm. 

BAGS   AND    GOWNS. 


ON  the  stages  of  the  Caroline  theatres  the  lawyer  is 
found  with  a  green  bag  in  his  hand;  the  same  is 
the  case  in  the  literature  of  Queen  Anne's  reign;  and 
until  a  comparatively  recent  date  green  bags  were  gene- 
rally carried  in  Westminster  Hall  and  in  provincial  courts 
by  the  great  body  of  legal  practitioners.  From  Wycherley's 
'  Plain  Dealer,'  it  appears  that  in  the  time  of  Charles  LT. 
angry  clients  were  accustomed  to  revile  their  lawyers  as 
'green  bag-carriers.'  When  the  litigious  Widow  Black- 
acre  upbraids  the  barrister  who  declines  to  argue  for  her, 
she  exclaims — "  Impertinent  again,  and  ignorant  to  me ! 
Gadsboddikins !  you  puny  upstart  in  the  law,  to  use  me 
so,  you  green-bag  carrier,  you  murderer  of  unfortunate 
causes,  the  clerk's  ink  is  scarce  off  of  your  fingers."  In 
the  same  drama,  making  much  play  with  the  green  bag, 
Wycherley  indicates  the  Widow  Blackacre's  quarrelsome 
disposition  by  decorating  her  with  an  enormous  green 
reticule,  and  makes  her  son  the  law-student,  stagger 
about  the  stage  in  a  gown,  and  under  a  heavy  burden  of 
green  bags. 

So  also  in  the  time   of  Queen   Anne,   to   say  that  a 
man  intended  to  carry  a  green  bag,  was  the  same  as  say- 


188  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

ing  that  lie  meant  to  adopt  the  law  as  a  profession.  In 
Dr.  Arbuthnot's  "  History  of  John  Bull,'  the  prevalence 
of  the  phrase  is  shown  by  the  passage,  "I  am  told, 
Cousin  Diego,  you  are  one  of  those  that  have  undertaken 
to  manage  me,  and  that  you  have  said  you  will  carry  a 
green  bag  yourself,  rather  than  we  shall  make  an  end  of 
our  lawsuit.  I'll  teach  them  and  you  too  to  manage." 
It  must,  however,  be  borne  in  mind  that  in  Queen  Anne's 
time,  green  bags,  like  white  bands,  were  as  generally 
adopted  by  solicitors  and  attorneys,  as  by  members  of  the 
bar.  In  his  '  character  of  a  pettifogger '  the  author  of 
•  The  London  Spy '  observes — "  His  learning  is  commonly 
as  little  as  his  honesty,  and  his  conscience  much  larger 
than  his  green  bag." 

Some  years  have  elapsed  since  green  bags  altogether 
disappeared  from  our  courts  of  law;  but  the  exact  date  of 
their  disappearance  has  hitherto  escaped  the  vigilance  and 
research  of  Colonel  Landman,  '  Causidicus,'  and  other 
writers  who  in  the  pages  of  that  useful  and  very  enter- 
taining publication,  Notes  and  Queries,  have  asked  for 
information  on  that  point  and  kindred  questions.  Evi- 
dence sets  aside  the  suggestion  that  the  color  of  the 
lawyer's  bag  was  changed  from  green  to  red  because  the 
proceedings  at  Queen  Caroline's  trial  rendered  green  bags 
odious  to  the  public,  and  even  dangerous  to  their  bearers; 
for  it  is  a  matter  of  certainty  that  the  leaders  of  the  Chan- 
cery and  Common  Law  bars  carried  red  bags  at  a  time 
considerably  anterior  to  the  inquiry  into  the  queen's 
conduct. 

In  a  letter  addressed  to  the  editor  of  Notes  and  Queries, 
a  writer  who  signs  himself  '  Causidicus,'  observes — 
"When  I  entered  the  profession  (about  fifty  years  ago) 
no  junior  barrister  presumed  to  carry  a  bag  in  the  Court 
of  Chancery,  unless  one  had  been  presented  to  him  by  a 
King's  Counsel;  who,  when  a  junior  was  advancing  in 


Costume  and  Toilet.  189 

practice,  took  an  opportunity  of  complimenting  him  on 
his  increase  of  business,  and  giving  him  his  own  bag  to 
carry  home  his  papers.  It  was  then  a  distinction  to  carry 
a  bag,  and  a  proof  that  a  junior  was  rising  in  his  pro- 
fession. I  do  not  know  whether  the  custom  prevailed  in 
other  courts."  From  this  it  appears  that  fifty  years  since 
the  bag- was  an  honorable  distinction  at  the  Chancery 
bar,  giving  its  bearer  some  such  professional  status  as 
that  which  is  conferred  by  '  silk '  in  these  days  when 
Queen's  Counsel  are  numerous. 

The  same  professional  usage  seems  to  have  prevailed  at 
the  Common  Law  bar  more  than  eighty  years  ago;  for 
in  1780,  when  Edward  Law  joined  the  Northern  Circuit, 
and  forthwith  received  a  large  number  of  briefs,  he  was 
complimented  by  Wallace  on  his  success,  and  presented 
with  a  bag.  Lord  Campbell  asserts  that  no  case  had 
ever  before  occurred  where  a  junior  won  the  distinc- 
tion of  a  bag  during  the  course  of  his  first  circuit. 
There  is  no  record  of  the  date  when  members  of  the 
junior  bar  received  permission  to  carry  bags  according  to 
their  own  pleasure;  it  is  even  matter  of  doubt  whether 
the  permission  was  ever  expressly  accorded  by  the  leaders 
of  the  profession — or  whether  the  old  restrictive  usage 
died  a  gradual  and  unnoticed  death.  The  present  writer, 
however,  is  assured  that  at  the  Chancery  bar,  long  after 
all  juniors  were  allowed  to  carry  bags,  etiquette  forbade 
them  to  adopt  bags  of  the  same  color  as  those  carried 
by  their  leaders.  An  eminent  Queen's  Counsel,  who  is 
a  member  of  that  bar,  remembers  that  when  he  first 
donned  a  stuff  gown,  he,  like  all  Chancery  jurors,  had  a 
purple  bag — whereas  the  wearers  of  silk  at  the  same 
period,  without  exception,  carried  red  bags. 

Before  a  complete  and  satisfactory  account  can  be 
given  of  the  use  of  bags  by  lawyers,  as  badges  of  honor 
and  marks  of  distinction,  answers  must  be  found  for 


190  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

several  questions  which  at  present  remain  open  to  dis- 
cussion. So  late  as  Queen  Anne's  reign,  lawyers  of  the 
lowest  standing,  whether  advocates  or  attorneys,  were 
permitted  to  carry  bags; — a  right  which  the  junior  bar 
appears  to  have  lost  when  Edward  Law  joined  the  North- 
ern Circuit.  At  what  date  between  Queen  Anne's  day 
and  1780  (the  year  in  which  Lord  Ellenborough  made 
his  debut  in  the  North),  was  this  change  effected  ?  Was 
the  change  gradual  or  sudden  ?  To  what  cause  was  it 
due?  Again,  is  it  possible  that  Lord  Campbell  and 
Causidicus  wrote  under  a  misapprehension,  when  they 
gave  testimony  concerning  the  usages  of  the  bar  with  re- 
gard to  bags,  at  the  close  of  the  last  and  the  beginning  of 
the  present  century?  The  memory  of  the  distinguished 
Queen's  Counsel,  to  whom  allusion  is  made  in  the  pre- 
ceding paragraph,  is  quite  clear  that  in  his  student  days 
Chancery  jurors-  were  forbidden  by  etiquette  to  carry 
red  bags,  but  were  permitted  to  carry  blue  bags;  and  he 
is  strongly  of  opinion  that  the  restriction,  to  which  Lord 
Campbell  and  Causidicus  draw  attention,  did  not  apply 
at  any  time  to  blue  bags,  but  only  concerned  red  bags, 
which,  so  late  as  thirty  years  since,  unquestionably  were 
the  distinguishing  marks  of  men  in  leading  Chancery 
practice.  Perhaps  legal  readers  of  this  chapter  will 
favor  the  writer  with  further  information  on  this  not 
highly  important,  but  still  not  altogether  uninteresting 
subject. 

The  liberality  which  for  the  last  five  and-twenty  years 
has  marked  the  distribution  of  '  silk '  to  rising  members  of 
the  bar,  and  the  ease  with  which  all  fairly  successful  advo- 
cates may  obtain  the  rank  of  Queen's  Counsel,  enable 
lawyers  of  the  present  generation  to  smile  at  a  rule  which 
defined  a  man's  professional  position  by  the  color  of  his 
bag,  instead  of  the  texture  of  his  gown;  but  in  times 
when  '  silk '  was  given  to  comparatively  few  members  of 


Costume  and  Toilet.  191 

the  bar,  and  when  that  distinction  was  most  unfairly- 
withheld  from  the  brightest  ornaments  of  their  profession, 
if  their  political  opinions  displeased  the  'party  in  power,' 
it  was  natural  and  reasonable  in  the  bar  to  institute  for 
themselves  an  '  order  of  merit ' — to  which  deserving  can- 
didates could  obtain  admission  without  reference  to  the 
prejudices  of  a  Chancellor  or  the  whims  of  a  clique. 

At  present  the  sovereign's  counsel  learned  in  the  law 
constitute  a  distinct  order  of  the  profession ;  but  until  the 
reign  of  William  IV.  they  were  merely  a  handful  of  court 
favorites.  In  most  cases  they  were  sound  lawyers  in 
full  employment;  but  the  immediate  cause  of  their  eleva- 
tion was  almost  always  some  political  consideration — 
and  sometimes  the  lucky  wearer  of  a  silk  gown  had  won 
the  right  to  put  K.C.  or  Q.C.  after  his  name  by  base 
compliance  with  ministerial  power.  That  our  earlier 
King's  Counsel  were  not  created  from  the  purest  motives 
or  for  the  most  honorable  purposes  will  be  readily  ad- 
mitted by  the  reader  who  reflects  that  '  silk  gowns '  are 
a  legal  species,  for  which  the  nation  is  indebted  to  the 
Stuarts.  For  all  practical  purposes  Francis  Bacon  was  a 
Q.C.  during  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  He  enjoyed 
peculiar  and  distinctive  status  as  a  barrister,  being  con- 
sulted on  legal  matters  by  the  Queen,  although  he  held 
no  place  that  in  familiar  parlance  would  entitle  him  to 
rank  with  her  Crown  Lawyers;  and  his  biographers  have 
agreed  to  call  him  Elizabeth's  counsellor  learned  in  the 
law.  But  a  Q.C.  holding  his  office  by  patent — that  is  to 
say,  a  Q.C.  as  that  term  is  understood  at  the  present  time 
— Francis  Bacon  never  was.  On  the  accession,  however, 
of  James  I.,  he  received  his  formal  appointment  of  K.C, 
the  new  monarch  having  seen  fit  to  recognise  the  lawyer's 
claim  to  be  regarded  as  a  'special  counsel,'  or  'learned 
counsel  extraordinary.'  Another  barrister  of  the  same 
period  who  obtained  the  same  distinction  was  Sir  Henry 


192  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

Montague,  who,  in  a  patent  granted  in  1G08  to  the  two 
Temples,  is  styled  "  one  of  our  counsel  learned  in  the  law." 
Thus  planted,  the  institution  of  monarch's  special  counsel 
was  for  many  generations  a  tree  of  slow  growth.  Until 
George  HX's  reign  the  number  of  monarch's  counsel, 
living  and  practising  at  the  same  time,  was  never  large; 
and  throughout  the  long  period  of  that  king's  rule  the 
fraternity  of  K.C.  never  assumed  them  agnitude  and 
character  of  a  professional  order.  It  is  uncertain  what 
was  the  greatest  number  of  contemporaneous  K.C.'s  dur- 
ing the  Stuart  dynasty;  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  from 
the  arrival  of  James  I.  to  the  flight  of  James  II.  there 
was  no  period  when  the  K.C.'s  at  all  approached  the  ser- 
geants in  name  and  influence.  In  Rymer's  '  Fcedera ' 
mention  is  made  of  four  barristers  who  were  appointed 
counsellors  to  Charles  L,  one  of  whom,  Sir  John  Finch, 
in  a  patent  of  precedence  is  designated  "  King's  Counsel;" 
but  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  royal  martyr  had  other 
special  counsellors  whose  names  have  not  been  recorded. 
At  different  times  of  Charles  II. 's  reign,  there  were  created 
some  seventeen  K.C.'s,  and  seven  times  that  number  of 
sergeants.  James  II.  made  ten  K.C.'s;  William  and 
Mary  appointed  eleven  special  counsellors;  and  the  num- 
ber of  Q.C.'s  appointed  by  Anne  was  ten.  The  names  of 
George  L's  learned  counsel  are  not  recorded;  the  list  of 
George  II. 's  K.C.'s,  together  with  barristers  holding 
patents  of  precedence,  comprise  thirty  names;  George  III. 
throughout  his  long  tenure  of  the  crown,  gave  '  silk '  with 
or  without  the  title  of  K.C,  to  ninety-three  barristers; 
George  TV.  to  twenty-six;  whereas  the  list  of  William 
IV.'s  appointments  comprised  sixty-five  names,  and  the 
present  queen  has  conferred  the  rank  of  Q.C.  on  about 
two  hundred  advocates — the  law-list  for  1865  mentioning 
one  hundred  and  thirty-seven  barristers  who  are  Q.C.'s, 
or  holders  of  patents  of  precedence;  and  only  twenty -eight 


Costume  and  Toilet.  193 

sargeants-at-law,  not  sitting  as  judges  in  any  of  the 
supreme  courts.  The  diminution  in  the  numbers  of  the 
sergeants  is  due  partly  to  the  loss  of  their  old  monopoly 
of  business  in  the  Common  Pleas,  and  partly — some  say 
chiefly — to  the  profuseness  with  which  silk  gowns,  with 
Q.C.  rank  attached,  have  been  thrown  to  the  bar  since 
the  passing  of  the  Eeforni  Bill. 

Under  the  old  system  when  '  silk '  was  less  bountifully 
bestowed,  eminent  barristers  not  only  led  their  circuits  in 
stuff ;  but,  after  holding  office  as  legal  advisers  to  the 
crown  and  wearing  silk  gowns  whilst  they  so  acted  with 
their  political  friends,  they  sometimes  resumed  their  stuff 
gowns  and  places  '  outside  the  bar,'  on  descending  from 
offical  eminence.  When  Charles  York  in  1763  resigned 
the  post  of  Attorney  General,  he  returned  to  his  old 
place  in  court  without  the  bar,  clad  in  the  black  bom- 
bazine of  an  ordinary  barrister,  whereas  during  his  tenure 
of  office  he  had  worn  silk  and  sat  within  the  bar.  In  the 
same  manner  when  Dunning  resigned  the  Solicitor  Gene- 
ralship in  1770,  he  reappeared  in  the  Court  of  King's 
Bench,  attired  in  stuff,  and  took  his  place  without  the  bar; 
but  as  soon  as  he  had  made  his  first  motion,  he  was  ad- 
dressed by  Lord  Mansfield,  who  with  characteristic  cour- 
tesy informed  him  that  he  should  take  precedence  in  that 
court  before  all  members  of  the  bar,  whatever  might  be 
their  standing,  with  the  exception  of  King's  Counsel,  Ser- 
geants, and  the  Recorder  of  London.  On  joining  the 
Northern  Circuit  in  1780,  Edward  Law  found  Wallace 
and  Lee  leading  in  silk,  and  twenty  years  later  he  and 
Jemmy  Park  were  the  K.  C.'s  of  the  same  district;  Of 
course  the  circuit  was  not  without  wearers  of  the  coif,  one 
of  its  learned  sergeants  being  Cockell,  who,  before  Law 
obtained  the  leading  place,  was  known  as  '  the  Almighty 
of  the  North  ;'  and  whose  success,  achieved  in  spite  of  an 
almost  total  ignorance  of  legal  science,  was  long  quoted 
9 


194  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

to  show  that  though  knowledge  is  power,  power  may  be 
won  without  knowledge. 

From  pure  dislike  of  the  thought  that  younger  men 
should  follow  closely  or  at  a  distance  in  his  steps  to  the 
highest  eminences  of  legal  success,  Lord  Eldon  was  dis- 
gracefully stingy  in  bestowing  honors  on  rising  barristers 
who  belonged  to  his  own  party ,  but  his  injustice  and 
downright  oppression  to  brilliant  advocates  in  the  Whig 
ranks  merit  the  warmest  expressions  of  disapproval  and 
contempt.  The  most  notorious  sufferers  from  his  rancor- 
ous intolerance  were  Henry  Brougham  and  Mr.  Denman, 
who,  having  worn  silk  gowns  as  Queen  Caroline's  Attorney 
General  and  Solicitor  General,  were  reduced  to  stuff  attire 
on  that  wretched  lady's  death. 

It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  in  old  time,  when  silk  gowns 
were  few,  their  wearers  were  sometimes  verv  young  men. 
From  the  days  of  Francis  North,  who  was  made  K.  C. 
before  he  was  a  barrister  for  seven  full  years'  standing, 
down  to  the  days  of  Eldon,  who  obtained  silk  after  seven 
years'  service  in  stuff,  instances  could  be  cited  of  the 
rapidity  with  which  lucky  youngsters  rose  to  the  honors 
of  silk,  whilst  hard-worked  veterans  were  to  the  last  kept 
outside  the  bar.  Thurlow  was  called  to  the  bar  in  No- 
vember, 1754,  and  donned  silk  in  December,  1761.  Six 
years  had  now  elapsed  since  his  call  to  the  English  bar, 
when  Alexander  Wedderburn  was  entitled  to  put  the 
initials  K.  C.  after  his  name,  and  wrote  to  his  mother  in 
Scotland,  "  I  can't  very  well  explain  to  you  the  nature  of 
my  preferment,  but  it  is  what  most  people  at  the  bar  are 
very  desirous  of,  and  yet  most  people  run  a  hazard  of 
losing  money  by  it.  I  can  scarcely  expect  any  advantage 
from  it  for  some  time  equal  to  what  I  give  up;  and, 
notwithstanding,  I  am  extremely  happy,  and  esteem  my- 
self very  fortunate  in  having  obtained  it."  Erskine's  silk 
was  won  with  even  greater  speed,  for  he  was  invited  within 


Costume  and  Toilet  195 

the  bax;  but  his  silk  gown  came  to  him  with  a  patent  of 
precedence,  giving  him  the  status  without  the  title  of  a 
King's  Counsel. 

Bar  mourning  is  no  longer  a  feature  of  legal  costume 
in  England.  On  the  death  of  Charles  EL  members  of  the 
bar  donned  gowns  indicative  of  their  grief  for  the  national 
loss,  and  they  continued,  either  universally  or  in  a  large 
number  of  cases,  to  wear  these  woful  habiliments  till  1697, 
when  Chief  Justice  Holt  ordered  all  barristers  practising 
in  his  court  to  appear  "  in  their  proper  gowns  and  not  in 
mourning  ones  " — an  order  which,  according  to  Narcissus 
Luttrell,  compelledthe  bar  to  spend  £lh  per  man.  From 
this  it  may  be  inferred  that  (regard  being  had  to  change 
in  value  of  money)  a  bar-gown  at  the  close  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  cost  about  ten  times  as  much  as  it  does  at 
the  present  time. 


CHAPTER     XXIV. 


HATS. 


NOT  less  famous  in  history  than  Bradshaw's  broad- 
brimmed  hat,  nor  less  graceful  than  Shaftesbury's 
jaunty  beaver,  nor  less  memorable  than  the  sailor's  tar- 
paulin, under  cover  of  which  Jeffreys  slunk  into  the  Red 
Cow,  Wapping,  nor  less  striking  than  the  black  cap  still 
worn  by  Justice  in  her  sternest  mood,  nor  less  fanciful 
than  the  cocked  hat  which  covered  Wedderburn's  pow- 
dered hair  when  he  daily  paced  the  High  Street  of  Edin- 
burgh with  his  hands  in  a  muff — was  the  white  hat  which 
an  illustrious  Templar  invented  at  an  early  date  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Beau  Brummel's  original  mind 
taught  the  human  species  to  starch  their  white  cravats; 


196  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

Richard  Nash,  having  surmounted  the  invidious  bar  of 
plebeian  birth  and  raised  himself  upon  opposing  circum- 
stances to  the  throne  of  Bath,  produced  a  white  hat.  To 
which  of  these  great  men  society  owes  the  heavier  debt  of 
gratitude  thoughtful  historians  cannot  agree  ;  but  even 
envious  detraction  admits  that  they  deserve  high  rank 
amongst  the  benefactors  of  mankind.  Brummel  was  a 
soldier;  but  Law  proudly  claims  as  her  own  the  parent  of 
the  pale  and  spotless  chapeau. 

About  lawyers'  cocked  hats  a  capital  volume  might  be 
written,  that  should  contain  no  better  story  than  the  one 
which  is  told  of  Ned  Thurlow's  discomfiture  in  1788, 
when  he  was  playing  a  trickster's  game  with  his  friends 
and  foes.  Windsor  Castle  just  then  contained  three  dis- 
tinct centres  of  public  interest — the  mad  king  in  the 
hands  of  his  keepers ;  on  the  one  side  of  the  impotent 
monarch  the  Prince  of  Wales  waiting  impatiently  for  the 
Regency ;  on  the  other  side,  the  queen  with  equal  im- 
patience longing  for  her  husband's  recovery.  The  prince 
and  his  mother  both  had  apartments  in  the  castle,  her 
majesty's  quarters  being  the  place  of  meeting  for  the 
Tory  ministers,  whilst  the  prince's  apartments  were 
thrown  open  to  the  select  leaders  of  the  Whig  expectants. 
Of  course  the  two  coteries  kept  jealously  apart;  but  Thur- 
low,  who  wished  to  be  still  Lord  Chancellor,  "  whatever 
king  might  reign,"  was  in  private  communication  with 
the  prince's  friends.  With  furtive  steps  he  passed  from 
the  queen's  room  (where  he  had.  a  minute  before  been 
assuring  the  ministers  that  he  would  be  faithful  to  the 
king's  adherents),  and  made  clandestine  way  to  the  apart- 
ment where  Sheridan  and  Payne  were  meditating  on  the 
advantages  of  a  regency  without  restriction.  On  leaving 
the  prince,  the  wary  lawyer  used  to  steal  into  the  king's 
chamber,  and  seek  guidance  or  encouragement  from  the 
madman's  restless  eyes.     Was  the  malady  curable?    If 


Costume  and  Toilet  197 

curable,  how  long  a  time  would  elapse  before  the  return 
of  reason  ?  These  were  the  questions  which  the  Chan- 
cellor put  to  himself,  as  he  debated  whether  he  should 
break  with  the  Tories  and  go  over  to  the  Whigs. 
Through  the  action  of  the  patient's  disease,  the  most 
delicate  part  of  the  lawyer's  occupation  was  gone;  and 
having  no  longer  a  ting's  conscience  to  keep,  he  did  not 
care,  by  way  of  diversion — to  keep  his  own. 

For  many  days  ere  they  received  clear  demonstration 
of  the  Chancellor's  deceit,  the  other  members  of  the 
cabinet  suspected  that  he  was  acting  disingenuously,  and 
when  his  double-dealing  was  brought  to  their  sure  knowl- 
.  edge,  their  indignation  was  not  even  qualified  with  sur- 
prise. The  story  of  his  exposure  is  told  in  various  ways; 
but  all  versions  concur  in  attributing  his  detection  to  an 
accident.  Like  the  gallant  of  the  French  court,  whose 
clandestine  intercourse  with  a  great  lady  was  discovered 
because,  in  his  hurried  preparations  for  flight  from  her 
chamber,  he  appropriated  one  of  her  stockings,  Thurlow, 
according  to  one  account,  was  convicted  of  perfidy  by  the 
prince's  hat,  which  he  bore  under  his  arm  on  entering 
the  closet  where  the  ministers  awaited  his  coming. 
Another  version  says  that  Thurlow  had  taken  his  seat  at 
the  council-table,  when  his  hat  was  brought  to  him  by  a 
page,  with  an  explanation  that  he  had  left  it  in  the  prince's 
private  room.  A  third,  and  more  probable  representation 
of  the  affair,  instead  of  laying  the  scene  in  the  council- 
chamber,  makes  the  exposure  occur  in  a  more  public  part 
of  the  castle.  "  When  a  council  was  to  be  held  at  Wind- 
sor," said  the  Right  Honorable  Thomas  Grenville,  in  his 
old  age  recounting  the  particulars  of  the  mishap,  "to 
determine  the  course  which  ministers  should  pursue, 
Thiu'low  had  been  there  some  time  before  any  of  his  col- 
leagues arrived.  He  was  to  be  brought  back  to  London 
by  one  of  them,   and  the  moment  of  departure  being 


198  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

come,  the  Chancellor's  hat  was  nowhere  to  be  found. 
After  a  fruitless  search  in  the  apartment  where  the 
council  had  been  held,  a  page  came  with  the  hat  in  his 
hand,  saying  aloud,  and  with  great  naivete,  'My  lord,  I 
found  it  in  the  closet  of  his  Royal  Highness  the  Prince 
of  Wales.'  The  other  Ministers  were  still  in  the  Hall, 
and  Thurlow's  confusion  corroborated  the  inference  which 
they  drew."  Cannot  an  artist  be  found  to  place  upon 
canvas  this  scene,  which  furnishes  the  student  of  human 
nature  with  an  instructive  instance  of 

"  That  combination  strange — a  lawyer  and  a  brash  ?" 

For  some  days  Thurlow's  embarrassment  and  chagrim 
were  very  painful.  But  a  change  in  the  state  of  the 
king's  health  caused  a  renewal  of  the  lawyer's  attachment 
to  Tory  principles  and  to  his  sovereign. 

The  lawyers  of  what  may  be  termed  the  cocked  hat 
period  seldom  maintained  the  happy  mean  between  too 
little  and  too  great  care  for  personal  appearance.  For 
the  most  part  they  were  either  slovenly  or  foppish. 
From  the  days  when  as  a  student  he  used  to  slip  into 
Nando's  in  a  costume  that  raised  the  supercilious  as- 
tonishment of  his  contemporaries,  Thurlow  to  the  last 
erred  on  the  side  of  neglect.  Camden  roused  the  satire 
of  an  earlier  generation  by  the  miserable  condition  of  the 
tiewig  which  he  wore  on  the  bench  of  Chancery,  and  by 
an  undignified  and  provoking  habit  of  "  gartering  up  his 
stockings  while  counsel  were  the  most  strenuous  in  their 
eloquence."  On  the  other  hand  Joseph  Yates — the 
puisne  judge  whom  Mansfield's  jeers  and  merciless  op- 
pressions drove  from  the  King's  Bench  to  the  Common 
Pleas,  where  he  died  within  four  months  of  his  retreat — 
was  the  finest  of  fine  gentlemen.  Before  he  had  de- 
monstrated his  professional  capacity,  the  habitual  costli- 
ness and  delicacy  of  his  attire  roused  the  distrust  of  at- 


Costume  and  Toilet.  199 

torneys,  and  on  more  than  one  occasion  "wrought  him 
injury.  An  awkward,  crusty,  hard-featured  attorney 
entered  the  foppish  barrister's  chambers  with  a  bundle  of 
papers,  and  on  seeing  the  young  man  in  a  superb  and 
elaborate  evening  dress,  is  said  to  have  inquired,  "  Can 
you  say,  sir,  when  Mr.  Yates  will  return  ?"  "  Return, 
my  good  sir !"  answered  the  barrister,  with  an  air  of  sur- 
prise, "  I  am  Mr.  Yates,  and  it  will  give  me  the  greatest 
pleasure  to  talk  with  you  aJt>out  those  papers."  Having 
taken  a  deliberate  survey  of  the  young  Templar,  and 
made  a  mental  inventory  of  all  the  fantastic  articles  of 
his  apparel,  the  honest  attorney  gave  an  ominous  grunt, 
replaced  the  papers  in  one  of  the  deep  pockets  of  his  long- 
skirted  coat,  twice  nodded  his  head  with  contemptuous 
significance,  and  then,  without  another  word — walked 
out  of  the  room.  It  was  his  first  visit  to  those  chambers, 
and  his  last.  Joseph  Yates  lost  his  client,  before  he 
could  even  learn  his  name;  but  in  no  way  influenced  by 
the  occurrence  he  maintained  his  reputation  for  faultless 
taste  in  dress,  and  when  he  had  raised  himself  to  the  bench, 
he  was  amongst  the  judges  of  his  day  all  that  Revell  Rey- 
nolds was  amongst  the  London  physicians  of  a  later  date. 
Living  in  the  midst  of  the  fierce  contentions  which 
distracted  Ireland  in  the  days  of  our  grandfathers,  John 
Toler,  first  Earl  of  Norbury,  would  not  have  escaped 
odium  and  evil  repute,  had  he  been  a  merciful  man  and  a 
scrupulous  judge;  but  in  consequence  of  failings  and 
wicked  propensities,  which  gave  countenance  to  the 
slanders  of  his  enemies  and  at  the  same  time  earned  for 
him  the  distrust  and  aversion  of  his  political  coadjutors, 
he  has  found  countless  accusers  and  not  a  single  vindi- 
cator. Resembling  George  Jeffreys  in  temper  and  mental 
capacity,  he  resembled  him  also  in  posthumous  fame. 
A  shrewd,  selfish,  overbearing  man,  possessing  wit 
which  was  exercised  with  equal  promptitude  upon  friends 


200  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

and  foes,  he  alternately  roused  the  terror  and  the  laughter  , 
of  his  audiences.  At  the  bar  and  in  the  Irish  House 
of  Commons  he  was  alike  notorious  as  jester  and  bully; 
but  he  was  a  courageous  bully,  and  to  the  last  was 
always  as  ready  to  fight  with  bullets  as  with  epigrams,  and 
though  his  humor  was  especially  suited  to  the  taste  and 
passions  of  the  rabble,  it  sometimes  convulsed  with  merri- 
ment those  who  were  shocked  by  its  coarseness  and 
brutality.  Having  voted  fo»  the  abolition  of  the  Irish 
Parliament,  the  Righj;  Honorable  John  Toler  was  prepared 
to  justify  his  conduct  with  hair-triggers  or  sarcasms.  To 
the  men  who  questioned  his  patriotism  he  was  wont  to 
answer,  "  Name  any  hour  before  my  court  opens  to- 
morrow," but  to  the  patriotic  Irish  lady  who  loudly 
charged  him  in  a  crowded  drawing-room  with  having  sold 
his  country,  he  replied,  with  an  affectation  of  cordial 
assent,  "  Certainly,  madam,  I  have  sold  my  country.  It 
was  very  lucky  for  me  that  I  had  a  country  to  sell — I 
wish  I  had  another."  On  the  bench  he  spared  neither 
counsel  nor  suitors,  neither  witnesses  nor  jurors.  When 
Daniel  O'Connell,  whilst  he  was  conducting  a  cause  in  the 
Irish  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  observed,  "Pardon  me,  my 
lord,  I  am  afraid  your  lordship  does  not  apprehend  me;" 
the  Chief  Justice  (alluding  to  a  scandalous  and  false 
report  that  O'Connell  had  avoided  a  duel  by  surrendering 
himself  to  the  police)  retorted,  "Pardon  me  also;  no  one 
is  more  easily  apprehended  than  Mr.  O'Connell" — (a 
pause — and  then  with  emphatic  slowness  of  utterance) — 
"whenever  he  wishes  to  be  apprehended."  It  is  said 
that  when  this  same  judge  passed  sentence  of  death  on 
Robert  Emmett,  he  paused  when  he  came  to  the  point 
where  it  is  usual  for  a  judge  to  add  in  conclusion,  "  And 
may  the  Lord  have  mercy  on  your  soul!"  and  regarded 
the  brave  young  man  with  searching  eyes.  For  a  minute 
there  was  an  awful  silence  in  the  court;  the  bar  and  the 


Costume  and  Toilet  201 

assembled  crowd  supposing  that  the  Chief  Justice  had 
paused  so  that  a  few  seconds  of  unbroken  stillness  might 
add  to  the  solemnity  of  his  last  words.  The  disgust  and 
indignation  of  the  spectators  were  beyond  the  power  of 
language,  when  they  saw  a  smile  of  brutal  sarcasm  steal 
over  the  face  of  the  Chief  Justice  as  he  rose  from  his  seat 
of  judgment  without  uttering  another  word. 

"Whilst  the  state  prosecutions  were  going  forward, 
Lord  Norbuiy  appeared  on  the  bench  in  a  costume  that 
accorded  ill  with  the  gravity  of  his  office.  The  weather 
was  intensely  hot;  and  whilst  he  was  at  his  morning 
toilet  the  Chief  Justice  selected  from  his  wardrobe  the 
dress  which  was  most  suited  to  the  sultriness  of  the  air. 
The  garb  thus  selected  for  its  coolness  was  a  dress  which 
his  lordship  had  worn  at  a  masquerade  ball,  and  consisted 
of  a  green  tabinet  coat  decorated  with  huge  mother-of- 
pearl  buttons,  a  waistcoat  of  yellow  relieved  by  black 
stripes,  and  buff  breeches.  When  he  first  entered  the 
court,  and  throughout  all  the  earlier  part  of  the  proceed- 
ings against  a  party  of  rebels,  his  judicial  robes  altogether 
concealed  this  grotesque  attire;  but  unfortunately  towards 
the  close  of  the  sultry  day's  work,  Lord  Norbury — op- 
pressed by  the  stifling  atmosphere  of  the  court,  and  for- 
getting all  about  the  levity  as  well  as  the  lightness  of  his 
inner  raiment — threw  back  his  judicial  robe  and  displayed 
the  dress  which  several  persons  then  present  had  seen  him 
wear  at  Lady  Castlereagh's  ball.  Ere  the  spectators  re- 
covered from  their  first  surprise,  Lord  Norbury,  quite 
unconscious  of  his  indecorum,  had  begun  to  pass  sentence 
of  death  on  a  gang  of  prisoners,  speaking  to  them  in  a 
solemn  voice  that  contrasted  painfully  with  the  inappro- 
priateness  of  his  costume.    ' 

In  the  following  bright  and  picturesque  sentence,  Dr. 
Dibdin  gives  a  life-like  portrait  of  Erskine,  whose  pei'sonal 
vanity  was  only  equalled  by  the  egotism  which  often  gave 


202  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

piquancy  to  his  orations,  and  never  lessened  their  effect : — 
"Cocked  hats  and  ruffles,  with  satin  small-clothes  and 
silk  stockings,  at  this  time  constituted  the  usual  evening 
dress.  Erskine,  though  a  good  deal  shorter  than  his 
brethren,  somehow  always  seemed  to  take  the  lead  both 
in  pace  and  in  discourse,  and  shouts  of  laughter  would 
frequently  follow  his  dicta.  Among  the  surrounding 
promenaders,  he  and  the  one-armed  Mingay  seemed  to  be 
the  main  objects  of  attraction.  Towards  evening,  it  was 
the  fashion  for  the  leading  counsel  to  promenade  during 
the  summer  in  the  Temple  Gardens,  and  I  usually  formed 
one  in  the  thronging  mall  of  loungers  and  spectators.  I 
had  analysed  Blackstone,  and  wished  to  publish  it  under 
a  dedication  to  Mr.  Erskine.  Having  requested  the  favor 
of  an  interview,  he  received  me  graciously  at  breakfast 
before  nine,  attired  in  the  smart  dress  of  the  times,  a 
dark  green  coat,  scarlet  waistcoat,  and  silk  breeches.  He 
left  his  coffee,  stood  the  whole  time  looking  at  the  chart 
I  had  cut  in  copper,  and  appeared  much  gratified.  On 
leaving  him,  a  chariot-and-four  drew  up  to  wheel  him  to 
some  provincial  town  on  a  special  retainer.  He  was  then 
coining  money  as  fast  as  his  chariot  wheels  rolled  along." 
Erskine's  advocacy  was  marked  by  that  attention  to  trifles 
which  has  often  contributed  to  the  success  of  distinguished 
artists.  His  special  retainers  frequently  took  him  to  parts 
of  the  country  where  he  was  a  stranger,  and  required  him 
to  make  eloquent  speeches  in  courts  which  his  voice  had 
never  tested.  It  was  his  custom  on  reaching  the  town 
where  he  would  have  to  plead  on  the  following  day,  to 
visit  the  court  over-night,  and  examine  its  arrangements, 
so  that  when  the  time  for  action  arrived  he  might  address 
the  jury  from  the  most  favorable  spot  in  the  chamber. 
He  was  a  theatrical  speaker,  and  omitted  no  pains  to 
secure  theatrical  effect.  It  was  noticed  that  he  never 
appeared  within  the  bar  until  the  cause  cilebre  had  been 


Costume  and  Toilet.  203 

called;  and  a  buzz  of  excitement  and  anxious  expectation 
testified  the  eagerness  of  the  assembled  crowd  to  see,  as 
well  as  to  hear,  the  celebrated  advocate.  Every  article  of 
his  bar  costume  received  his  especial  consideration;  arti- 
fice could  be  discerned  in  the  modulations  of  his  voice, 
the  expressions  of  his  countenance,  and  the  movements  of 
his  entire  body;  but  the  coldest  observer  did  not  detect 
the  artifice  until  it  had  stirred  his  heart.  Humor  un- 
justly asserted  that  he  never  uttered  an  impetuous  perora- 
tion which  he  had  not  frequently  rehearsed  in  private 
before  a  mirror.  About  the  cut  and  curls  of  his  wigs, 
their  texture  and  color,  he  was  very  particular :  and  the 
hands  which  he  extended  in  entreaty  towards  British 
juries  were  always  ca3ed  in  lemon-colored  kid  gloves. 

Erskine  was  not  more  noticeable  for  the  foppishness  of 
his  dress  than  was  Lord  Kenyon  for  a  sordid  attire. 
Whilst  he  was  a  leading  advocate  within  the  bar,  Lord 
Kenyon's  ordinary  costume  would  have  disgraced  a  copy- 
ing clerk ;  and  during  his  later  years,  it  was  a  question 
amongst  barristers  whether  his  breeches  were  made  of 
velvet  or  leather.  The  wits  maintained  that  when  he 
kissed  hands  upon  his  elevation  to  the  Attorney's  place, 
he  went  to  court  in  a  second-hand  suit  purchased  from 
Lord  Stormont's  valet.  In  the  letter  attributed  to  him 
by  a  clever  writer  in  the  '  Rolliad,'  he  is  made  to  say — 
"  My  income  has  been  cruelly  estimated  at  seven,  or,  as 
some  will  have  it,  eight  thousand  pounds  per  annum.  I 
shall  save  myself  the  mortification  of  denying  that  I  am 
rich,  and  refer  you  to  the  constant  habits  and  whole  tenor 
of  my  life.  The  proof  to  my  friends  is  easy.  My  tailor's 
bill  for  the  last  fifteen  years  is  a  record  of  the  most  indis- 
putable authority.  Malicious  souls  may  direct  you,  per- 
haps, to  Lord  Stormont's  valet  de  chambre,  and  can  vouch 
the  anecdote  that  on  the  day  when  I  kissed  hands  for 
my  appointment  to  the  office  of  Attorney  General,  I  ap- 


204  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

peared  in  a  laced  waistcoat  that  once  belonged  to  his 
master.  I  bought  the  waistcoat,  but  despise  the  in- 
sinuation ;  nor  is  this  the  only  instance  in  which  I  am 
obliged  to  diminish  my  wants  and  apportion  them  to  my 

very  limited  means.     Lady  K will  be  my  witness 

that  until  my  last  appointment  I  was  an  utter  stranger  to 
the  luxury  of  a  pocket-handkerchief."  The  pocket-hand- 
kerchief which  then  came  into  his  possession  was  sup- 
posed to  have  been  found  in  the  pocket  of  the  second- 
hand waistcoat ;  and  Jekyll  always  maintained  that,  as  it 
was  not  considered  in  the  purchase,  it  remained  the  valet's 
property,  and  did  not  pass  into  the  lawyer's  rightful  pos- 
session. This  was  the  only  handkerchief  which  Lord 
Kenyon  is  said  to  have  ever  possessed,  and  Lord  Ellen- 
borough  alluded  to  it  when,  in  a  conversation  that  turned 
upon  the  economy  which  the  income-tax  would  necessi- 
tate in  all  ranks  of  life,  he  observed — "  Lord  Kenyon,  who 
is  not  very  nice,  intends  to  meet  the  crisis  by  laying  down 
his  handkerchief." 

Of  his  lordship's  way  of  getting  through  seasons  of 
catarrh  without  a  handkerchief,  there  are  several  stories 
that  would  scarcely  please  the  fastidious  readers  of  this 
volume. 

Of  his  two  wigs  (one  considerably  less  worn  than  the 
other),  and  of  his  two  hats  (the  better  of  which  would 
not  have  greatly  disfigured  an  old  clothesman,  whilst  the 
worse  would  have  been  of  service  to  a  professional  scare- 
crow), Lord  Kenyon  took  jealous  care.  The  inferior  wig 
was  always  worn  with  the  better  hat,  and  the  more  dilapi- 
dated hat  with  the  superior  wig  ;  and  it  was  noticed  that 
when  he  appeared  in  court  with  the  shabbier  wig  he  never 
removed  his  chapeau  ;  whereas,  on  the  days  when  he  sat 
in  his  more  decent  wig,  he  pushed  his  old  cocked  hat  out 
of  sight.  In  the  privacy  of  his  house  and  in  his  car- 
riage, whenever  he  traveled  beyond  the  limits  of  town,  he 


Costume  and  Toilet  205 

used  to  lay  aside  wig  and  hat,  and  cover  his  head  with 
an  old  red  night-cap.  Concerning  his  great-coat,  the 
original  blackness  of  which  had  been  tempered  by  long 
usage  into  a  fuscous  green,  capital  tales  were  fabricated. 
The  wits  could  not  spare  even  his  shoes.  "  Once,"  Dr. 
Didbin  gravely  narrated,  "in  the  case  of  an  action 
brought  for  the  non-fulfillment  of  a  contract  on  a  large 
scale  for  shoes,  the  question  mainly  was,  whether  or  not 
they  were  well  and  soundly  made,  and  with  the  best  ma- 
terials. A  number  of  witnesses  were  called,  one  of  them, 
a  first-rate  character  in  the  gentle  craft,  being  closely 
questioned,  returned  contradictory  answers,  when  the 
Chief  Justice  observed,  pointing  to  his  own  shoes,  which 
were  regularly  bestridden  by  the  broad  silver  buckle  of 
the  day,  •  Were  the  shoes  anything  like  these  ?'  '  No,  my 
lord,'  replied  the  evidence,  'they  were  a  good  deal  better 
and  more  genteeler.'  "  Dr.  Didbin  is  at  needless  pains 
to  assure  his  readers  that  the  shoemaker's  answer  was 
followed  by  uproarious  laughter. 


PAET  V. 
MUSIC. 

■  HI 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

THE    PIANO    IN    CHAMBERS. 

r^  the  Inns  of  Court,  even  more  often  than  in  the 
colleges  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  musical  instru- 
ments and  performances  are  regarded  by  severe  students 
with  aversion  and  abhorrence.  Mr.  Babbage  will  live 
in  peace  and  charity  with  the  organ-grinders  who  are 
continually  doing  him  an  unfriendly  turn  before  the  in- 
dustrious conveyancer  on  the  first  floor  will  pray  for  the 
welfare  of  'that  fellow  upstairs '  who  daily  practises  the 
flute  or  cornopean  from  11  a.  m.  to  3  p.  m.  The  '  Wander- 
ing Minstrels '  and  their  achievements  are  often  men- 
tioned with  respect  in  the  western  drawing-rooms  of 
London;  but  if  the  gentlemen  who  form  that  distin- 
guished troupe  of  amateur  performers  wish  to  sacrifice 
their  present  popularity  and  take  a  leading  position 
amongst  the  social  nuisances  of  the  period,  they  should 
migrate  from  the  district  which*  delights  to  honor  them 
to  chambers  in  Old  Square,  Lincoln's  Inn,  and  give 
morning  concerts  every  day  of  term  time. 

Working  lawyers  feel  warmly  on  this  subject,  main- 


Music  207 

taining  that  no  man  should  be  permitted  to  be  an  amateur- 
barrister  and  an  amateur-musician  at  the  same  time,  and 
holding  that  law-students  with  a  turn  for  wind-instru- 
ments should,  like  vermin,  be  hunted  down  and  knocked 
on  the  head — without  law.  Strange  stories  might  be 
told  of  the  discords  and  violent  deeds  to  which  music 
has  given  rise  in  the  four  Inns.  In  the  last  century 
many  a  foolish  fellow  was  'put  up'  at  ten  paces,  because 
he  refused  to  lay  down  an  ophicleide;  even  as  late  as 
George  IV. 's  time  death  has  followed  from  an  inordinate 
addiction  to  the  violin;  and  it  was  but  the  other  day 
that  the  introduction  of  a  piano  into  a  house  in  Carey 
Street  led  to  the  destruction  of  three  close  and  warm 
friendships. 

So  alive  are  lawyers  to  the  frightful  consequences  of  a 
wholesale  exhibition  of  melodious  irritants,  that  a  natural 
love  of  order  and  desire  for  self-preservation  has 
prompted  them  to  raise  numerous  obstructions  to  the 
free  development  of  musical  science  in  their  peculiar 
localities  of  town.  In  the  Inns  of  Court  and  Chancery 
Lane  professional  etiquette  forbids  barristers  and  solicitors 
to  play  upon  organs,  harmoniums,  pianos,  violins,  or 
other  stringed  instruments,  drums,  trumpets,  cymbals, 
shawms,  bassoons,  triangles,  castanets  or  any  other  bony 
devices  for  the  production  of  noise,  flageolets,  hautboys, 
or  any  other  sort  of  boys — between  the  hours  of  9  a.  m. 
and  6  p.  m.  And  this  rule  of  etiquette  is  supported  by 
various  special  conditions  introduced  into  the  leases  by 
which  the  tenants  hold  much  of  the  local  house  property. 
Under  .some  landlords,  a  tenant  forfeits  his  lease  if  he 
indulges  in  any  pursuit  that  causes  annoyance  to  his 
immediate  neighbors;  under  others,  every  occupant  of 
a  set  of  chambers  binds  himself  not  to  play  any  musical 
instrument  therein,  save  between  the  hours  of  9  a.  m.  and 
12   p.  m.;   and  in   more   than   one  clump  of  chambers, 


208  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

situated  within  a  stone's  throw  from  Chancery  Lane, 
glee-singing  is  not  permitted  at  any  period  of  the  four- 
and-twenty  hours. 

That  the  pursuit  of  harmony  is  a  dangerous  pastime 
for  young  lawyers  cannot  be  questioned,  although  a  long 
list  might  be  given  of  cases  where  musical  barristers  have 
gained  the  confidence  of  many  clients,  and  eventually 
raised  themselves  to  the  bench.  A  piano  is  a  treacherous 
companion  for  the  student  who  can  touch  it  deftly — 
dangerous  as  an  idle  friend,  whose  wit  is  ever  brilliant; 
fascinating  as  a  beautiful  woman,  whose  smile  is  always 
fresh;  deceptive  as  the  drug  which  seems  to  invigorate, 
whilst  in  reality  it  is  stealing  away  the  intellectual  powers. 
Every  persevering  worker  knows  how  large  a  portion  of 
his  hard  work  has  been  done  'against  the  grain,'  and 
in  spite  of  strong  inclinations  to  indolence — in  hours 
when  pleasant  voices  could  have  seduced  him  from  duty, 
and  any  plausible  excuse  for  indulgence  would  have  been 
promptly  accepted.  In  the  piano  these  pleasant  voices 
are  constantly  present,  and  it  can  always  show  good 
reason — why  reluctant  industry  should  relax  its  exertions. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

THE   BATTLE   OF   THE    ORGANS. 


SIR  THOMAS  MORE  and  Lord  Bacon— the  two  most 
illustrious  laymen  who  have  held  the  Great  Seal  of 
England — were  notable  musicians;  and  many  subsequent 
Keepers  and  Chancellors  are  scarcely  less  famous  for  love 
of  harmonious  sounds  than  for  judicial  efficiency.  Lord 
Keeper  Guildford  was  a  musical  amateur,  and  notwith- 
standing his  low  esteem  of  literature  condescended  to 


Music.  209 

write  about  melody.  Lord  Jeffreys  was  a  good  after- 
dinner  vocalist,  and  was  esteemed  a  high  authority  on 
questions  concerning  instrumental  performance.  Lord 
Camden  was  an  operatic  composer;  and  Lord  Thurlow 
studied  thorough-bass,  in  order  that  he  might  direct  the 
musical  exercises  of  his  children. 

In  moments  of  depression  More's  favorite  solace  was 
the  viol;  and  so  greatly  did  he  value  musical  accomplish- 
ments in  women,  that  he  not  only  instructed  his  first 
and  girlish  wife  to  play  on  various  instruments,  but  even 
prevailed  on  the  sour  Mistress  Alice  Middleton  "  to  take 
lessons  on  the  lute,  the  cithara,  the  viol,  the  monochord, 
and  the  flute,  which  she  daily  practised  to  him."  But 
More's  love  of  music  was  expressed  still  more  forcibly 
in  the  zeal  with  which  he  encouraged  and  took  part  in 
the  choral  services  of  Chelsea  Church.  Throughout  his 
residence  at  Chelsea,  Sir  Thomas  was  a  regular  attendant 
at  the  church,  and  during  his  tenure  of  the  seals  he  not 
only  delighted  to  chant  the  appointed  psalms,  but  used 
to  don  a  white  surplice,  and  take  his  place  among  the 
choristers.  Having  invited  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  to  dine 
with  him,  the  Chancellor  prepared  himself  for  the  enjoy- 
ment of  that  great  peer's  society  by  attending  divine 
service,  and  he  was  still  occupied  with  his  religious  exer- 
cises when  his  Grace  of  Norfolk  entered  the  church,  and 
to  his  inexpressible  astonishment  saw  the  keeper  of  the 
king's  conscience  in  the  flowing  raiment  of  a  chorister, 
and  heard  him  give  "  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest !"  as 
though  he  were  a  hired  singer.  "  God's  body !  God's 
body!  My  Lord  Chancellor  a  parish  clerk? — a  parish 
clerk  ?"  was  the  duke's  testy  expostulation  with  the 
Chancellor.  "Whereupon  More,  with  gentle  gravity, 
answered,  "Nay;  your  grace  may  nbt  think  that  the 
king — -your  master  and  mine — will  with  me,  for  serving 
his  Master,  be  offended,  and  thereby  account  his  office 


210  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

dishonored."  Not  only  was  it  More's  custom  to  sing 
in  the  church  choir,  but  he  used  also  to  bear  a  cross  in 
religious  processions;  and  on  being  urged  to  mount 
horse  when  he  followed  the  rood  in  Rogation  week  round 
the  parish  boundaries,  he  answered,  "  It  beseemeth  not 
the  servant  to  follow  his  master  prancing  on  a  cock- 
horse, his  master  going  on  foot."  Few  incidents  in  Sir 
Thomas  More's  remarkable  career  point  more  forcibly  to 
the  vast  difference  between  the  social  manners  of  the 
sixteenth  century  and  those  of  the  present  day.  If 
Lord  Chelmsford  were  to  recreate  himself  with  leading 
the  choristers  in  Margaret  Street,  and  after  service  were 
seen  walking  homewards  in  an  ecclesiastical  dress,  it  is 
more  than  probable  that  pubhc  opinion  would  declare 
him  a  fit  companion  for  the  lunatics  of  whose  interests 
he  has  been  made  the  official  guardian.  Society  felt  some 
surprise  as  well  as  gratification  when  Sir  Roundell 
Palmer  recently  published  his  !  Book  of  Praise  ;'  but  if 
the  Attorney  General,  instead  of  printing  his  select 
hymns  had  seen  fit  to  exemplify  their  beauties  with  his 
own  voice  from  the  stall  of  a  church-singer,  the  piety  of 
his  conduct  would  have  scarcely  reconciled  Lord  Pal- 
merston  to  its  dangerous  eccentricity. 

Amongst  Elizabethan  lawyers,  Chief  Justice  Dyer  was 
by  no  means  singular  for  his  love  of  music,  though 
Whetstone's  lines  have  given  exceptional  celebrity  to  his 
melodious  proficiency: — 

"  For  publique  good,  when  care  had  cloid  his  minde, 
The  only  joye,  for  to  repose  his  sprights, 
Was  i!  nisi  que  sweet,  which  showd  him  well  inclind; 
For  he  doth  in  mnsique  much  delight, 
A  conscience  hath  disposed  to  do  most  right: 
The  reason  is,  her  sound  within  our  eare, 
A  sympathie  of  heaven  we  thinke  we  heare." 

Like  James  Dyer,  Francis  Bacon  found  music  a  plea- 


Music.  211 

sant  and  salutary  pastime,  when  lie  was  fatigued  by  the 
noisy  contentions  of  legal  practice  or  by  strenuous  appli- 
cation to  philosophic  pursuits.  A  perfect  master  of  the 
science  of  melody,  Lord  Bacon  explained  its  laws  with  a 
clearness  which  has  satisfied  competent  judges  that  he 
was  familiar  with  the  practice  as  well  as  the  theories  of 
harmony;  but  few  passages  of  his  works  display  more 
agreeably  his  personal  delight  and  satisfaction  in  musical 
exercise  and  investigation  than  that  section  of  the 
'Natural  History,'  wherein  he  says,  "And  besides  I  prac- 
tice as  I  do  advise;  which  is,  after  long  inquiry  of 
things  immersed  hi-  matter,  to  interpose  some  subject 
which  is  immateriate  or  less  materiate;  such  as  this  of 
sounds:  to  the  end  that  the  intellect  may  be  rectified 
and  become  not  partial." 

A  theorist  as  well  as  performer,  the  Lord  Keeper 
Guilford  enunciated  his  views  regarding  the  principles 
of  melody  in  •  A  Philosophical  Essay  of  Musick,  Directed 
to  a  Friend ' — a  treatise  that  was  published  without  the 
author's  name,  by  Martin,  the  printer  to  the  Royal 
Society,  in  the  year  1677,  at  which  time  the  future 
keeper  was  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas.  The 
merits  of  the  tract  are  not  great;  but  it  displays  the 
subtlety  and  whimsical  quaintness  of  the  musical  lawyer, 
who  performed  on  several  instruments,  was  very  vain  of 
a  feeble  voice,  and  used  to  attribute  much  of  his  profes- 
sional success  to  the  constant  study  of  music  that  marked 
every  period  of  his  life.  "  I  have  heard  him  say,"  Roger 
records,  "that  if  he  had  not  enabled  himself  by  these 
studies,  and  particular  his  practice  of  music  upon  his 
bass  or  lyra  viol  (which  he  used  to  touch  lute-fashion 
upon  his  knee),  to  divert  himself  alone,  he  had  never 
been  a  lawyer.  His  mind  was  so  airy  and  volatile  he 
could  not  have  kept  his  chamber  if  he  must  needs  be 
there,  staked  down  purely  to  the  drudgery  of  the  law, 


212  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

whether  in  study  or  practice;  and  yet  upon  such  a 
leaden  proposition,  so  painful  to  brisk  spirits,  all  the  suc- 
cess of  the  profession,  regularly  pursued,  depends."  His 
first  acquaintance  with  melodious  art  was  made  at  Cam- 
bridge, where  in  his  undergraduate  days  he  took  lessons 
on  the  viol.  At  this  same  period  he  "had  the  oppor- 
tunity of  practice  so  much  in  his  grandfather's  and 
father's  families,  where  the  entertainment  of  music  in 
full  concert  was  solemn  and  froquent,  that  he  outdid  all 
his  teachers,  and  became  one  of  the  neatest  violinists  of  his 
time."  Scarcely  in  consistence  with  this  declaration  of 
the  Lord  Keeper's  proficiency  on  the  violin  is  a  later  pas- 
sage of  the  biography,  where  Roger  says  that  his  brother 
"  attempted  the  violin,  being  ambitious  of  the  prime  part 
in  concert,  but  soon  found  that  he  began  such  a  difficult 
art  too  late."  It  is,  however,  certain  that  the  eminent 
lawyer  in  the  busiest  passages  of  his  laborious  life  found 
time  for  musical  practice,  and  that  besides  his  essay 
on  music,  he  contributed  to  his  favorite  art  several 
compositions  which  were  performed  in  private  concert- 
rooms. 

Sharing  in  the  musical  tastes  of  his  family,  Roger 
North,  the  biographer,  was  the  friend  who  used  to  touch 
the  harpsichord  that  stood  at  the  door  of  the  Lord  Keeper's 
bed-chamber ;  and  when  political  changes  had  extin- 
guished his  hopes  of  preferment,  he  found  consolation  in 
music  and  literature.  Retiring  to  his  seat  in  Norfolk, 
Roger  fitted  up  a  concert-room  with  instruments  that 
roused  the  astonishment  of  country  squires,  and  an  organ 
that  was  extolled  by  critical  professors  for  the  sweetness 
of  its  tones.  In  that  seclusion,  where  he  lived  to  extreme 
old  age,  the  lettered  lawyer  composed  the  greater  part 
of  those  writings  which  have  rendered  him  familiar  to 
the  present  generation.  Of  his  'Memoirs  of  Musick,' 
readers  are  not  accustomed  to  speak  so  gratefully  as  of 


Musk.  213 

his  biographies  ;  but  the  curious  sketch  which  Dr.  Rim- 
bault  edited  and  for  the  first  time  published  in  1846,  is 
worthy  of  perusal,  and  will  maintain  a  place  on  the 
shelves  of  literary  collectors  by  the  side  of  his  brother's 
'  Essay.' 

In  that  treatise  Eoger  alludes  to  a  contest  which  in 
the  reigns  of  Charles  H.  and  James  II  agitated  the  mu- 
sicians of  London,  divided  the  Templars  into  two  hostile 
parties,  and  for  a  considerable  time  gave  rise  to  quarrels 
in  every  quarter  of  the  town.  All  this  disturbance  re- 
sulted from  "  a  competition  for  an  organ  in  the  Temple 
church,  for  which  the  two  competitors,  the  best  artists  in 
Europe,  Smith  and  Harris,  were  but  just  not  ruined." 
The  struggle  thus  mentioned  in  the  '  Memoirs  of  Musick' 
is  so  comic  an  episode  in  the  story  of  London  life, 
and  has  been  the  occasion  of  so  much  error  amongst 
writers,  that  it  claims  brief  restatement  in  the  present 
chapter. 

In  February,  1682,  the  Benchers  of  the  Temples,  wish- 
ing to  obtain  for  their  church  an  organ,  of  superlative  ex- 
cellence, invited  Father  Smith  and  Renatus  Harris  to 
compete  for  the  honor  of  supplying  the  instrument.  The 
masters  of  the  benchers  pledged  themselves  that  "if  each 
of  these  excellent  artists  would  set  up  an  organ  in  one  of 
the  halls  belonging  to  either  of  the  societies,  they  would 
have  erected  in  their  chuich  that  which,  in  the  greatest 
number  of  excellencies,  deserved  the  preference."  For 
more  than  twenty  years  Father  Smith  had  been  the  first 
organ-builder  in  England  ;  and  the  admirable  qualities 
of  his  instruments  testify  to  his  singular  ability.  A 
German  artist  (in  his  native  country  called  Bernard 
Schmidt,  but  in  London  known  as  Father  Smith),  he 
had  established  himself  in  the  English  capital  as  early  as 
the  summer  of  1660  ;  and  gaining  the  cordial  patronage 
of  Charles  H.,  he  and  his  two  grand-nephews  soon  be- 


214  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

came  leaders  of  their  craft.  Father  Smith  built  organs 
for  Westminster  Abbey,'  for  the  Church  of  ,St.  Giles-in- 
the-Fields,  for  St.  Margaret's  Church,  Westminster,  for 
Durham  Cathedral,  and  for  other  sacred  buildings.  In 
St.  Paul's  Cathedral  he  placed  the  organ  which  Wren 
disdainfully  designated  a  "  box  of  whistles  ;"  and  dying 
in  1708,  he  left  his  son-in-law,  Christopher  Schreider,  to 
complete  the  organ  which  still  stands  in  the  chapel  of 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  But  notwithstanding  his 
greatness,  Father  Smith  had  rivals  ;  his  first  rival  being 
Harris  the  Elder,  who  died  in  1672,  his  second  being 
Renatiis  Harris,  or  Harris  the  Younger.  The  elder  Har- 
ris never  caused  Smith  much  discomfort ;  but  his  son, 
Renatus,  was  a  very  clever  fellow,  and  a  strong  party  of 
fashionable  connoisseurs  declared  that  he  was  greatly  su- 
perior to  the  German.  Such  was  the  position  of  these 
two  rivals  when  the  benchers  made  their  proposal,  which 
was  eagerly  accepted  by  the  artificers,  each  of  whom  saw 
in  it  an  opportunity  for  covering  his  antagonist  with  hu- 
miliation. 

The  men  went  to  work  :  and  within  fourteen  months 
their  instruments  were  ready  for  competition.  Smith 
finished  work  before  Harris,  and  prevailed  on  the  benchers 
to  let  him  place  his  organ  in  the  Temple  church,  well 
knowing  that  the  powers  of  the  instrument  could  be  much 
more  readily  and  effectively  displayed  in  the  church  than 
in  either  of  the  dining-halls.  The  exact  site  where  he 
fixed  his  organ  is  unknown,  but  the  careful  author  of 
'  A  Few  Notes  on  the  Temple  Organ,  1859,'  is  of  opinion 
that  it  was  put  up  "  on  the  screen  between  the  round 
and  oblong  churches — the  position  occupied  by  the  organ 
until  the  present  organ-chamber  was  built,  and  the  organ 
removed  there  during  the  progress  of  the  complete  res- 
toration of  the  church  in  the  year  1843."  .No  sooner 
had  Harris  finished  his  organ,  than,  following  Father 


Music.  215 

Smith's  example,  he  asked  leave  of  the  benchers  to  erect 
it  within  the  church.  Harris's  petition  to  this  effect  bears 
date  May  26,  1684  ;  and  soon  afterwards  the  organ  was 
"  set  up  in  the  Church  on  the  south  side  of  the  Com- 
munion Table." 

Both  organs  being  thus  stationed  under  the  roof  of 
the  church,  the  committee  of  benchers  appointed  to  de- 
cide on  their  relative  merits  declared  themselves  ready 
to  listen.  The  trial  began,  but  many  months — ay,  some 
years — elapsed  ere  it  came  to  an  end.  On  either  side  the 
credit  of  the  manufacturer  was  sustained  by  execution  of 
the  highest  order  of  art.  Father  Smith's  organ  was 
handled  alternately  by  Purcell  and  Dr.  Blow;  and  Draghi, 
the  queen's  organist,  did  his  best  to  secure  a  verdict  for 
Benatus  Harris.  Of  course  the  employment  of  these 
eminent  musicians  greatly  increased  the  number  of  per- 
sons who  felt  personal  interest  in  the  contest.  Whilst 
the  pupils  and  admirers  of  Purcell  and  Blow  were  loud 
in  declaring  that  Smith's  organ  ought  to  win,  Draghi's 
friends  were  equally  sure  that  the  organ  touched  by  his 
expert  fingers  ought  not  to  lose.  Discussion  soon  became 
violent ;  and  in  every  profession,  clique,  coterie  of  the 
town,  supporters  of  Smith  wrangled  with  supporters  of 
Harris.  Like  the  battle  of  the  Gauges  in  our  time,  the 
battle  of  the  Organs  was  the  grand  topic  with  every  class 
of  society,  at  Court  and  on  'Change,  in  coffee-houses  and 
at  ordinaries.  Again  and  again  the  organs  were  tested 
in  the  hearing  of  dense  and  fashionable  congregations  ; 
and  as  often  the  judicial  committee  was  unable  to  come 
to  a  decision.  The  hesitation  of  the  judges  put  oil  upon 
the  fire  ;  for  Smith's  friends,  indignant  at  the  delay,  as- 
serted that  certain  members  of  the  committee  were  bound 
to  Harris  by  corrupt  considerations — an  accusation  that 
was  retorted  by  the  other  side  with  equal  warmth  and 
want  of  justice. 


216  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

After  the  squabble  had  been  protracted  through  many 
months,  Harris  created  a  diversion  by  challenging  Father 
Smith  to  make  additional  reed-stops  within  a  given  time. 
The  challenge  was  accepted  ;  and  forthwith  the  Father 
went  to  work  and  made  Vox  Humana,  Cremorne,  Double 
Courtel,  or  Double  Bassoon,  and  other  stops.  A  day 
was  appointed  for  the  renewal  of  the  contest  ;  but  party" 
feeling  ran  so  high,  that  during  the  night  preceding  the 
appointed  day  a  party  of  hot-headed  Harrissians  broke 
into  the  Temple  Church,  and  cut  Smith's  bellows — so  that 
on  the  following  morning  his  organ  was  of  no  more  ser- 
vice than  an  old  linen-press.  A  row  ensued  ;  and  in  the 
ardor  of  debate  swords  were  drawn. 

In  June,  1685,  the  benchers  of  the  Middle  Temple, 
made  a  written  declaration  in  favor  of  Father  Smith,  and 
urged  that  his  organ  should  be  forthwith  accepted. 
Strongly  and  rather  discourteously  worded,  this  declara- 
tion gave  offence  to  the  benchers  of  the  Inner  Temple, 
who  regarded  it  as  an  attempt  at  dictation  ;  and  on  June 
22,  1685,  they  recommended  the  appointment  of  another 
committee  with  powers  to  decide  the  contest.  Declining 
to  adopt  this  suggestion,  the  Middle  Temple  benchers  re- 
iterated their  high  opinion  of  Smith's  instrument.  On 
this  the  Battle  of  the  Organs  became  a  squabble  between 
the  two  Temples  ;  and  the  outside  public,  laughing  over 
the  quarrel  of  the  lawyers,  expressed  a  hope  that  honest 
men  would  get  their  own  since  the  rogues  had  fallen 
out. 

At  length,  when  the  organ-builders  had  well-nigh  ruined 
each  other,  and  the  town  had  grown  weary  of  the  dispute, 
the  Inner  Temple  yielded  somewhere  about  the  beginning 
of  1688 — at  an  early  date  of  which  year  Smith  received 
a  sum  of  money  in  part  payment  for  his  organ.  On  May 
27th  of  the  same  year,  Mr.  Pigott  was  appointed  organist. 
After  its  rejection  by  the  Temple,  Renatus  Harris  divided 


Music.  217 

his  organ  into  two,  and  having  sent  the  one  part  to  the 
cathedral  of  Christ's  Church,  Dublin,  he  set  up  the  other 
part  in  the  church  of  St.  Andrew,  Holborn.  Three  years 
after  his  disappointment,  Renatus  Harris  was  tried  at  the 
Old  Bailey  for  a  political  offence,  the  nature  of  which 
may  be  seen  from  the  following  entry  in  Narcissus  Lut- 
trell's  Diary  : — "  April,  1691.  The  Sessions  have  been  at 
the  Old  Bailey,  where  these  persons,  Renatus  Harris, 
John  Watts,  William  Rutland,  Henry  Gandy,  and  Thomas 
Ty  soe,  were  tried  at  the  Old  Bailey  for  setting  up  policies 
of  insurance  that  Dublin  would  be  in  the  hands  of  some 
other  king  than  their  present  majesties  by  Christmas 
next  :  the  jury  found  them  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor." 
For  this  offence  Renatus  Harris  was  fined  .£200,  and  was 
required  to  give  security  for  his  good  conduct  until 
Christmas. 

An  erroneous  tradition  assigns  to  Lord  Jeffreys  the 
honor  of  bringing  the  Battle  of  the  Organs  to  a  conclu- 
sion, and  writers  improving  upon  this  tradition,  have  re- 
presented that  Jeffreys  acted  as  sole  umpire  between  the 
contendants.  In  his  '  History  of  Music,'  Dr.  Burney,  to 
whom  the  prevalence  of  this  false  impression  is  mainly 
due,  observes — "At  length  the  decision  was  left  to  Lord 
Chief  Justice  Jeffries,  afterwards  King  James  the  Second's 
pliant  Chancellor,  who  was  of  that  society  (the  Inner 
Temple),  and  he  terminated  the  controversy  in  favor  of 
Father  Smith  ;  so  that  Harris's  organ  was  taken  away 
without  loss  of  reputation,  having  so  long  pleased  and 
puzzled  better  judges  than  Jefferies." 

Careful  inquirers  have  ascertained  that  Harris's  organ 
did  not  go  to  Wolverhampton,  but  to  Dublin  and  St.  An- 
drew's Holborn,  part  of  it  being  sent  to  the  one,  and  part 
to  the  other  place,.  It  is  certain  that  Jeffrys  was  not 
chosen  to  act  as  umpire  in  1681,  for  the  benchers  did  not 
10 


218  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

make  their  original  proposal  to  the  rival  builders  until 
February,  1682  ;  and  years  passed  between  that  date  and 
the  termination  of  the  squabble.  When  Burney  wrote: — 
"  At  length  the  decision  was  left  to  Lord  Chief  Justice 
Jefferies,  afterwards  King  James  II.' 8  pliant  Chancellor," 
the  musician  was  unaware  that  the  squabble  was  still  at 
white  heat  whilst  Jeffreys  occupied  the  woolsack.  On  his 
return  from  the  Western  Campaign,  Jeffreys  received  the 
seals  in  September,  1685,  whereas  the  dispute  about  the 
organs  did  not  terminate  till  the  opening  of  1688,  or  at 
earliest  till  the  close  of  1687.  There  is  no  authentic 
record  in  the  archives  of  the  Temples  which  supports,  or 
in  any  way  countenances,  the  story  that  Jeffreys  made 
choice  of  Smith's  instrument ;  but  it  is  highly  probable 
that  the  Lord  Chancellor  exerted  his  influence  with  the 
Inner  Temple  (of  which  society  he  was  a  member),  and 
induced  the  benchers,  for  the  sake  of  peace,  to  yield  to 
the  wishes  of  the  Middle  Temple.  It  is  no  less  probable 
that  his  fine  musical  taste  enabled  him  to  see  that  the 
Middle  Temple  benchers  were  in  the  right,  and  gave  es- 
pecial weight  to  his  words  when  he  spoke  against  Harris's 
instrument. 

Though  Jeffreys  delighted  in  music,  he  does  not  seem 
to  have  held  its  professors  in  high  esteem.  In  the  time 
of  Charles  II.  musical  artists  of  the  humbler  grades  liked 
to  be  styled  '  musitioners  ;'  and  on  a  certain  occasion, 
when  he  was  sitting  as  Recorder  for  the  City  of  London, 
George  Jeffreys  was  greatly  incensed  by  a  witness  who, 
in  «a  pompous  voice,  called  himself  a  musitioner.  With 
a  sneer  the  Recorder  interposed — "A  musitioner!  I 
thought  you  were  a  fiddler!"  "lama  musitioner,"  the 
violinist  answered,  stoutly.  "  Oh,  indeed,"  croaked  Jeff- 
reys. "  That  is  very  important — highly  important — ex- 
tremely important !  And  pray,  Mr.  Witness,  what  is  the 
difference  between  a  musitioner  and  a  fiddler?"    With 


Music  219 

fortunate  readiness  the  man  answered,  "As  much,  sir," 
as  there  is  between  a  pair  of  bagpipes  and  a  Re- 
corder. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

A   THICKNESS    IN    THE   THBOAT. 


THE  date  is  September,  1805,  and  the  room  before  us 
is  a  drawing-room  in  a  pleasant  house  at  Brighton. 
The  hot  sun  is  beating  down  on  cliff  and  terrace,  beach 
and  pier,  on  the  downs  behind  the  town  and  the  spark- 
ling sea  in  front.  The  brightness  of  the  blue  sky  is  soft- 
ened by  white  vapor  that  here  and  there  resembles  a  vast 
curtain  of  filmy  gauze,  but  nowhere  has  gathered  into 
visible  masses  of  hanging  cloud.  In  the  distance  the  sea 
is  murmuring  audibly,  and  through  the  screened  windows, 
together  with  the  drowsy  hum  of  the  languid  waves, 
comes  a  light  breeze  that  is  invigorating,  notwithstanding 
its  sensible  warmth. 

Besides  ourselves  there  are  but  two  people  in  the  room : 
a  gentlewoman  who  has  said  farewell  to  youth,  but  not 
to  feminine  grade  and  delicacy  ;  and  an  old  man,  who  is 
lying  on  a  sofa  near  one  of  the  open  windows,  whilst  his 
daughter  plays  passages  of  Handel's  music  on  the  piano- 
forte. 

The  old  man  wears  the  dress  of  an  obsolete  school  of 
English  gentlemen  ;  a  large  brown  wig  with  three  rows 
of  curls,  the  lowest  row  resting  on  the  curve  of  his 
shoulders  ;  a  loose  grey  coat,  notable  for  the  size  of  its 
cuffs  and  the  bigness  of  its  heavy  buttons  ;  ruffles  at  his 
wrists,  and  frills  of  fine  lace  below  his  roomy  cravat. 
These  are  the  most  conspicuous  articles  of  his  costume, 
but  not  the  most  striking  points  of  his  aspect.  Over  his 
huge,  pallid,  cadaverous,  furrowed  face  there  is  an  air 


220  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

singularly  expressive  of  exhaustion  and  power,  of  debility 
and  latent  strength — an  air  that  says  to  sensitive  behold- 
ers, "  This  prostrate  veteran  was  once  a  giant  amongst 
giants  ;  his  fires  are  dying  out  ;  but  the  old  magnificent 
courage  and  ability  will  never  altogether  leave  him  until 
the  beatings  of  his  heart  shall  have  quite  ceased  :  touch 
him  with  foolishness  or  disrespect,  and  his  rage  will  be 
terrible."  Standing  here  we  can  see  his  prodigious  bushy 
eyebrows,  that  are  as  white  as  driven  snow,  and  under 
them  we  can  see  the  large  black  eyes,  beneath  the  angry 
fierceness  of  which  hundreds  of  proud  British  peers,  as- 
sembled in  their  council-chamber,  have  trembled  like  so 
many  whipped  schoolboys.  There  is  no  lustre  in  them 
now,  and  their  habitual  expression  is  one  of  weariness 
and  profound  indifference  to  the  world — a  look  that  is 
deeply  pathetic  and  depressing,  until  some  transient  cause 
of  irritation  or  the  words  of  a  sprightly  talker  rouse  him 
into  animation.  But  the  most  noticeable  quality  of  his 
face  is  its  look  of  extreme  age.  Only  yesterday  a  keen 
observer  said  of  him,  "  Lord  Thurlow  is,  I  believe,  only 
seventy-four ;  and  from  his  appearance  I  should  think  him 
a  hundred  years  old." 

So  quiet  is  the  reclining  form,  that  the  pianist  thinks 
her  father  must  be  sleeping.  Turning  on  the  music-stool 
to  get  a  view  of  his  countenance,  and  to  satisfy  herself 
as  to  his  state,  she  makes  a  false  note,  when,  quick  as  the 
blunder,  the  brown  wig  turns  upon  the  pillow — the  fur- 
rowed face  is  presented  to  her  observation,  and  an  elec- 
tric brightness  fills  the  big  black  eyes,  as  the  veteran,  with 
deep  rolling  tones,  reproves  her  carelessness  : — "What  are 
you  doing  ? — what  are  you  doing  ?  I  had  almost  forgot- 
ten the  world.     Play  that  piece  again." 

Twelve  months  more — and  the  lady  will  be  playing  Han- 
del's music  on  that  same  instrument ;  but  the  old  man 
will  not  be  a  listener. 


Music.  221 

From  Brighton,  in  1805,  let  readers  transport  them- 
selves to  Canterbury  in  1776,  and  let  them  enter  a  bar- 
ber's shop,  hard  by  Canterbury  Cathedral.  It  is  a  primi- 
tive shop,  with  the  red  and  white  pole  over  the  door, 
and  a  modest  display  of  wigs  and  puff-boxes  in  the  win- 
dow. A  small  shop,  but,  notwithstanding  its  smallness, 
the  best  shop  of  its  kind  in  Canterbury ;  and  its  lean,  stiff, 
exceedingly  respectable  master  is  a  man  of  good  repute 
in  the  cathedral  town.  His  hands  have,  ere  now,  pow- 
dered the  Archbishop's  wig,  and  he  is  specially  retained 
by  the  chief  clergy  of  the  city  and  neighborhood  to  keep 
their  false  hair  in  order,  and  trim  the  natural  tresses  of 
their  children.  Not  only  have  the  dignitaries  of  the 
cathedral  taken  the  worthy  barber  under  their  special  pro- 
tection, but  they  have  extended  to  his  little  boy  Charles, 
a  demure,  prim  lad,  who  is  at  this  present  time  a  pupil 
in  the  King's  School,  to  which  academy  clerical  interest 
gained  him  admission.  The  lad  is  in  his  fourteenth 
year  ;  and  Dr.  Osmund  Beauvoir,  the  master  of  the  school, 
gives  him  so  good  a  character  for  industry  and  dutiful 
demeanor,  that  some  of  the  cathedral  ecclesiastics  have 
resolved  to  make  the  little  fellow's  fortune — by  placing 
him  in  the  office  of  a  Chorister.  There  is  a  vacant  place 
in  the  cathedral  choir  ;  and  the  boy  who  is  lucky  enough 
to  receive  the  appointment  will  be  provided  for  munifi- 
cently. He  will  forthwith  have  a  maintenance,  and  in 
course  of  time  his  salary  will  be  £70  per  annum. 

During  the  last  fortnight  the  barber  has  been  in  great 
and  constant  excitement — hoping  that  his  little  boy  will 
obtain  this  valuable  piece  of  preferment ;  persuading  him- 
self that  the  lad's  thickness  of  voice,  concerning  which 
the  choir-master  speaks  with  aggravating  persistence,  is 
a  matter  of  no  real  importance  ;  fearing  that  the  friends 
of  another  contemporary  boy,  who  is  said  by  the  choir- 
master to  have  an  exceedingly  mellifluous  voice,  may  de- 


222  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

feat  his  paternal  aspirations.  The  momentous  question 
agitates  many  humble  homes  in  Canterbury  ;  and  whilst 
Mr.  Abbott,  the  barber,  is  encouraged  to  hope  the  best 
for  his  son,  the  relatives  and  supporters  of  the  contempo- 
rary boy  are  urging  him  not  to  despair.  Party  spirit 
prevails  on  either  side — Mr.  Abbott's  family  associates 
maintaining  that  the  contemporary  boy's  higher  notes  re- 
semble those  of  a  penny  whistle  ;  whilst  the  contempo- 
rary boy's  father,  with  much  satire  and  some  justice,  mur- 
murs that  "  old  Abbott,  who  is  the  gossipmonger  of  the 
parsons,  wants  to  push  his  son  into  a  place  for  which 
there  is  a  better  candidate." 

To-day  is  the  eventful  day  when  the  election  will  be 
made.  Even  now,  whilst  Abbott,  the  barber,  is  trimming 
a  wig  at  his  shop  window,  and  listening  to  the  hopeful 
talk  of  an  intimate  neighbor,  his  son  Charley  is  chanting 
the  Old  Hundredth  before  the  whole  chapter.  When 
Charley  has  been  put  through  his  vocal  paces,  the  con- 
temporary boy  is  requested  to  sing.  "Whereupon  that 
clear-throated  competitor,  sustained  by  justifiable  self- 
confidence  and  a  new-laid  egg  which  he  had  sucked 
scarcely  a  minute  before  he  made  his  bow  to  their  rever- 
ences, sings  out  with  such  richness  and  compass  that  all 
the  auditors  recognize  his  great  superiority. 

Ere  ten  more-minutes  have  passed  Charley  Abbot  knows 
that  he  has  lost  the  election;  and  he  hastens  from  the 
cathedral  with  quick  steps.  Kunning  into  the  shop  he 
gives  his  father  a  look  that  tells  the  whole  story  of — 
failure,  and  then  the  little  fellow,  unable  to  command  his 
grief,  sits  down  upon  the  floor  and  sobs  convulsively. 

Failure  is  often  the  first  step  to  eminence. 

Had  the  boy  gained  the  chorister's  place,  he  would 
have  a  cathedral  servant  all  his  days. 

Having  failed  to  get  it,  he  returned  to  the  King's 
School,  went  a  poor  scholar  to  Oxford,  and  fought  his 


Music.  223 

way  to  honor.  He  became  Chief  Justice  of  the  King's 
Boneh,  and  a  peer  of  the  realm.  Towards  the  close  of 
his  honorable  career  Lord  Tenterden  attended  service 
in  the  Cathedral  .of  Canterbury,  accompanied  by  Mr. 
Justice  Richardson.  "When  the  ceremonial  was  at  an  end 
the  Chief  Justice  said  to  his  friend — "  Do  you  see  that 
old  man  there  amongst  the  choristers  ?  In  him,  brother 
Richardson,  behold  the  only  being  I  ever  envied : 
when  at  school  in  this  town  we  were  candidates  together 
for  a  chorister's  place  ;  he  obtained  it ;  and  if  I  had 
gained  my  wish  he  might  have  been  accompanying  you 
as  Chief  Justice,  andpointing  me  out  as  his  old  school-fel- 
low, the  singing  man." 


PAET  VI 

AMATEUR  THEATRICALS. 


chapter  xxvrn. 


ACTORS   AT    THE   BAB. 


SOME  years  since  the  late  Sergeant  Wilkins  was 
haranguing  a  crowd  of  enlightened  electors  from 
the  hustings  of  a  provincial  borough,  when  a  stentorian 
voice  exclaimed,  "  Go  home,  you  rope-dancer !"  Dis- 
daining to  notice  the  interruption,  the  orator  continued 
his  speech  for  fifty  saponds,  when  the  same  voice  again 
cried  out,  "Go  home,  you  rope-dancer!"  A  roar  of 
laughter  followed  the  reiteration  of  the  insult ;  and  in 
less  than  two  minutes  thrice  fifty  unwashed  blackguards 
were  roaring  with  all  the  force  of  their  lungs,  "  Ah-h-h 
— Go  home,  you  rope-dancer!"  Not  slow  to  see  the 
meaning  of  the  words,  the  unabashed  lawyer,  who  in  his 
life  had  been  a  dramatic  actor,  replied  with  his  accus- 
tomed readiness  and  effrontery.  A  young  man  un- 
acquainted with  mobs  would  have  descanted  indignantly 
and  with  many  theatrical  flourishes  on  the  dignity  and 
usefulness  of  the  player's  vocation  ;  an  ordinary  dema- 
gogue would  have  frankly  admitted  the  discourteous  im- 
peachment, and  pleaded  in  mitigation  that  he  had  always 


Amateur  Iheatncais.  225 

acted  in  leading  parts  and  for  high,  salaries.  Sergeant 
Wilkins  took  neither  of  those  courses,  for  he  knew  his 
audience,  and  was  aware  that  his  connection  with  the 
stage  was  an  affair  about  which  he  had  better  say  as 
little  as  possible.  Instead  of  appealing  to  their  generosity, 
or  boasting  of  his  histrionic  eminence,  he  threw  himself 
broadly  on  their  sense  of  humor.  Drawing  himself  up 
to  his  full  height,  the  big,  burly  man  advanced  to  the 
marge  of  the  platform,  and  extending  his  right  hand  with 
an  air  of  authority,  requested  silence  by  the  movement 
of  his  arm.  The  sign  was  instantly  obeyed;  for  having 
enjoyed  their  laugh,  the  multitude  wished  for  the  rope- 
dancer's  explanation.  As  soon  as  the  silence  was  com- 
plete, he  drew  back  two  paces,  put  himself  in  an  oratorical 
pose,  as  though  he  were  about  to  speak,  and  then,  dis- 
appointing the  expectations  of  the  assembly,  deliberately 
raised  forwards  and  upwards  the  skirts  of  his  frock-coat. 
Having  thus  arranged  his  drapery  he  performed  a  slow 
gyration — presenting  his  huge  round  shoulders  and  un- 
wieldy legs  to  the  populace.  When  his  back  was  turned 
to  the  crowd,  he  stooped  and  made  a  low  obeisance  to 
his  vacant  chair,  thereby  giving  the  effect  of  caricature  to 
the  outlines  of  his  most  protuberant  and  least  honorable 
part.  This  pantomime  lasted  scarcely  a  minute ;  and  be- 
fore the  spectators  could  collect  themselves  to  resent  so 
extraordinary  an  affront,  the  sergeant  once  again  faced 
them,  and  in  a  clear,  rich,  jovial  tone  exclaimed,  "He 
called  me  a  rope-dancer ! — after  what  you  have  seen,  do 
you  believe  him?" 

With  the  exception  of  the  man  who  started  tte  cry, 
levery  person  in  the  dense  multitude  was  convulsed  with 
laughter;  and  till  the  end  of  the  election  no  turbulent 
rascal  ventured  to  repeat  the  allusion  to  the  sergeant's 
former  occupation.  At  a  moment  of  embarrassment,  Mr. 
Disraeli,  in  the  course  of  one  of  his  youthful  candidatures, 
10* 


226  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

created  a  diversion  in  his  favor  by  telling  a  knot  of  unruly 
politicians  that  he  stood  on  his  head.  "Witn  less,  wit,  and 
much  less  decency,  but  with  equal  good  fortune,  Sergeant 
"Wilkins  took  up  his  position  on  a  baser  part  of  his  frame. 
The  electors  who  respected  Mr.  Wilkins  because  he  was 
a  successful  barrister,  whilst  they  reproached  him  with 
having  been  a  stage-player,  were  unaware  how  close  an 
alliance  exists  between  the  art  of  the  actor  and  the  art  of 
the  advocate,  To  lawyers  of  every  grade  and  speciality 
the  histrionic  faculty  is  a  useful  power;  but  to  the  advo- 
cate who  wishes  to  sway  the  minds  of  jurors  it  is  a  ne- 
cessary endowment.  Comprising  several  distinct  abilities, 
it  not  only  enables  the  orator  to  rouse  the  passions  and 
to  play  on  the  prejudices  of  his  hearers,  but  it  preserves 
him  from  the  errors  of  judgment,  tone,  emphasis — in 
short,  from  manifold  blunders  of  indiscretion  and  tact  by 
which  verdicts  are  lost  quite  as  often  as  through  defect  of 
evidence  and  merit.  Like  the  dramatic  performer,  the 
court-speaker,  especially  at  the  common  law  bar,  has  to 
assume  various  parts.  Not  only  should  he  know  the 
facts  of  his  brief,  but  he  should  thoroughly  identify  him- 
self with  the  client  for  whom  his  eloquence  is  displayed. 
On  the  theatrical  stage  mimetic  business  is  cut  up  into 
specialities,  men  in  most  cases  filling  the  parts  of  men, 
whilst  actresses  fill  the  parts  of  women ;  the  young  repre- 
senting the  characteristics  of  youth,  whilst  actors  with 
special  endowments  simulate  the  qualities  of  old  age; 
some  confining  themselves  to  light  and  trivial  characters, 
whilst  others  are  never  required  to  strut  before  the 
scenes  with  hurried  paces,  or  to  speak  in  phrases  that 
lack  dignity  and  fine  sentiment.  But  the  popular  ad- 
vocate must  in  turn  fill  every  rdle.  If  childish  sim- 
plicity be  his  client's  leading  characteristic,  his  intona- 
tions will  express  pliancy  and  foolish  confidence;  or  if  it  is 
desirable  that  the  jury  should  appreciate  his  client's 


Amateur  Theatricals.  227 

honesty  of  purpose,  he  speaks  with  a  voice  of  blunt, 
bluff,  manly  frankness.  Whatever  quality  the  advocate 
may  wish  to  represent  as  the  client's  distinctive  charac- 
teristic, it  must  be  suggested  to  the  jury  by  mimetic 
artifice  of  the  finest  sort.  Speaking  of  a  famous  counsel, 
an  enthusiastic  juryman  once  said  to  this  writer — "  In 
my  time  I  have  heard  Sir  Alexander  in  pretty  nearly 
every  part:  I've  heard  him  as  an  old  man  and  a  young 
woman  ;  I  have  heard  him  when  he  has  been  a  ship  run 
down  at  sea,  and  when  he  has  been  an  oil-factory  in  a 
state  of  conflagration ;  once,  when  I  was  foreman  of  a 
jury,  I  saw  him  poison  his  intimate  friend,  and  another 
time  he  did  the  part  of  a  pious  bank  director  in  a  fashion 
that  would  have  skinned  the  eyelids  of  Exeter  Hall :  he 
ain't  bad  as  a  desolate  widow  with  nine  children,  of 
which  the  eldest  is  under  eight  years  of  age ;  but  if  ever 
I  have  to  listen  to  him  again,  I  should  like  to  see  him  as 
a  young  lady  of  good  connexions  who  has  been  seduced 
by  an  officer  of  the  Guards."  In  the  days  of  his  forensic 
triumphs  Henry  Brougham  was  remarkable  for  the  mi- 
metic power  which  enabled  him  to  describe  friend  or  foe 
by  a  few  subtle  turns  of  the  voice.  At  a  later  period, 
long  after  he  had  left  the  bar,  in  compliance  with  a 
request  that  he  would  return  thanks  for  the  bridesmaids 
at  a  wedding  breakfast,  he  observed,  that  "  doubtless  he 
had  been  selected  for  the  task  in  consideration  of  his 
youth,  beauty,  and  innocence."  The  laughter  that  fol- 
lowed this  sally  was  of  the  sort  which  in  poetic  phraseo- 
logy is  called  inextinguishable;  and  one  of  the  wedding 
guests  who  heard  the  joke  and  the  laughter,  assures  this 
writer  that  the  storm  of  mirthful  applause  was  chiefly  due 
to  the  delicacy  and  sweetness  of  the  intonations  by  which 
the  speaker's  facile  voice,  with  its  old  and  once  familiar 
art,  made  the  audience  realize  the  charms  of  youth,  beau- 
ty and  innocence — charms  which,  so  far  as  the  lawyer's 


228  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

wrinkled  visage  was  concerned,  were  conspicuous  by  their 
absence. 

Eminent  advocates  have  almost  invariably  possessed 
qualities  that  would  have  made  them  successful  mimics 
on  the  stage.  For  his  mastery  of  oratorical  artifices 
Alexander  Wedderburn  vfus  greatly  indebted  to  Sheridan, 
the  lecturer  on  elocution,  and  to  Macklin,  the  actor,  from 
both  of  whom  he  took  lessons;  and  when  he  had  dis- 
missed his  teachers  and  become  a  leader  of  the  English 
bar  he  adhered  to  their  rules,  and  daily  practised  before 
a  looking-glass  the  facial  tricks  by  which  Mackin  taught 
him  to  simulate  surprise  or  anger,  indignation  or  triumph. 
Erskine  was  a  perfect  master  of  dramatic  effect,  and  much 
of  his  richly-deserved  success  was  due  to  the  theatrical 
artifices  with  which  he  played  upon  the  passions  of  juries. 
At  the  conclusion  of  a  long  oration  he  was  accustomed 
to  feign  utter  physical  prostration,  so  that  the  twelve 
gentlemen  in  the  box,  in  their  sympathy  for  his  sufferings 
and  their  admiration  for  his  devotion  to  the  interests  of 
his  client,  might  be  impelled  by  generous  emotion  to 
return  a  favorable  verdict.  Thus  when  he  defended 
Hardy,  hoarseness  and  fatigue  so  overpowered  him  towards 
the  close  of  his  speech,  that  during  the  last  ten  minutes 
he  could  not  speak  above  a  whisper,  and  in  order  that  his 
whispers  might  be  audible  to  the  jury,  the  exhausted 
advocate  advanced  two  steps  nearer  to  their  box,  and  then 
extended  his  pale  face  to  their  eager  eyes.  The  effect  of 
the  artifice  on  the  excited  jury  is  said  to  have  been  great 
and  enduring,  although  they  were  speedily  enlightened 
as  to  the  real  nature  of  his  apparent  distress.  No  sooner 
had  the  advocate  received  the  first  plaudits  of  his  theatre 
on  the  determination  of  his  harangue,  than  the  multitude 
outside  the  court,  taking  up  the  acclamations  which  were 
heard  within  the  building,  expressed  their  feelings  with 
such   deafening    clamor,   and    with    so   many  signs  of 


Amateur  Theatricals.  229 

riotous  intention,  that  Erskine  was  entreated  to  leave  the 
court  and  soothe  the  passions  of  the  mob  with  a  few 
words  of  exhortation.  In  compliance  with  this  sugges- 
tion he  left  the  court,  and  forthwith  addressed  the  dense 
out-door  assembly  in  clear,  ringing  tones  that  were 
audible  in  Ludgate  Hill,  at  one  end  of  the  Old  Bailey, 
and  to  the  billowy  sea  of  human  heads  that  surged  round 
St.  Sepulchre's  Church  at  the  other  extremity  of  the 
dismal  thoroughfare. 

At  the  subsequent  trial  of  John  Home  Tooke,  Sir 
John  Scott,  unwilling  that  Erskine  should  enjoy  a 
monopoly  of  theatrical  artifice,  endeavored  to  create  a 
diversion  in  favor  of  the  government  by  a  display  of 
those  lachrymose  powers,  which  Byron  ridiculed  in  the 
following  century.  "  I  can  endure  anything  but  an 
attack  on  my  good  name,"  exclaimed-  the  Attorney 
General,  in  reply  to  a  criticism  directed  against  his 
mode  of  conducting  the  prosecution;  "my  good  name  is 
the  little  patrimony  I  have  to  leave  to  my  children,  and, 
with  God's  help,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  I  will  leave  it  to 
them  unimpaired."  As  he  uttered  these  words  tears 
suffused  the  eyes  which,  at  a  later  period  of  the  lawyer's 
career,  used  to  moisten  the  woolsack  in  the  House  of 
Lords — 

"  Because  the  Catholics  would  not  rise, 
In  spite  of  his  prayers  and  his  prophecies." 

For  a  moment  Home  Tooke,  who  persisted  in  regarding 
all  the  circumstances  of  his  perilous  position  as  farcical, 
smiled  at  the  lawyer's  outburst  in  silent  amusement; 
but  as  soon  as  he  saw  a  sympathetic  brightness  in  the 
eyes  of  one  of  the  jury,  the  dexterous  demagogue  with 
characteristic  humor  and  effrontery  accused  Sir  John 
Mitford,  the  Solicitor  General,  of  needless  sympathy  with 
the  sentimental  disturbance  of  his  colleague.     "  Do  you 


230  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

know  what  Sir  John  Mitford  is  crying  about?"  the 
prisoner  inquired  of  the  jury.  "  He  is  thinking  of  the 
destitute  condition  of  Sir  John  Scott's  children,  and  the 
little  patrimony  they  are  likely  to  divide  among  them." 
The  jury  and  all  present  were  not  more  tickled  by  the 
satire  upon  the  Attorney  General  than  by  the  indignant 
surprise  which  enlivened  the  face  of  Sir  John  Mitford, 
who  was  not  at  all  prone  to  tears,  and  had  certainly 
manifested  no  pity  for  John  Scott's  forlorn  condition. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

"  THE    PJAY'S   THE    THING." 

FOLLOWING  the  example  set  by  the  nobility  in  their 
castles  and  civic  palaces,  the  Inns  of  Court  set  apart 
certain  days  of  the  year  for  feasting  and  revelry,  and 
amongst  the  diversions  with  which  the  lawyers  recreated 
themselves  at  these  periods  of  rejoicing,  the  rude  Pre- 
Shakespearian  dramas  took  a  prominent  place.  So  far 
back  as  a.d.  1431,  the  Masters  of  the  Lincoln's  Inn 
Bench  restricted  the  number  of  annual  revels  to  four — 
"one  at  the  feast  of  All-Hallown,  another  at  the  feast 
of  St.  Erkenwald;  the  third  at  the  feast  of  the  Purifica- 
tion of  our  Lady;  and  the  4th  at  Midsummer."  The 
ceremonials  of  these  holidays  were  various;  but  the  brief 
and  sometimes  unintelligible  notices  of  the  chroniclers 
give  us  sufficiently  vivid  and  minute  pictures  of  the  bois- 
terous jollity  that  marked  the  proceedings.  Miracle 
plays  and  moralities,  dancing  and  music,  fantastic  pro- 
cessions and  mad  pranks,  spurred  on  the  hours  that 
were  not  devoted  to  heavy  meals  and  deep  potations. 
In  the  merriments  of  the  different  Inns  there  was  a 


Amateur  Theatricals.  231 

pleasant  diversity — with  regard  to  the  duration  and 
details  of  the  entertainments:  and  occasionally  the 
members  of  the  four  societies  acted  with  so  little  concert 
that  their  festivals,  falling  at  exactly  the  same  time, 
were  productive  of  rivalry  and  disappointments.  Dug- 
dale  thinks  that  the  Christmas  revels  were  not  regularly 
kept  in  Lincoln's  Inn  during  the  reign  of  Henry  VIU. ; 
and  draws  attention  to  an  order  made  by  the  benchers  of 
that  house  on  27  Nov.,  22  H.  VIII.,  the  record  of  which 
runs  thus  : — "  It  is  agreed  that  if  the  two  Temples  do 
kepe  Chrystemas,  then  the  Chrystemas  to  be  kept  here; 
and  to  know  this,  the  Steward  of  the  House  ys  com- 
manded to  get  knowledge,  and  to  advertise  my  masters 
by  the  next  day  at  night." 

But  notwithstanding  changes  and  novelties,  the  main 
features  of  a  revel  in  an  Inn  of  Court  were  always  much 
the  same.  Some  member  of  the  society  conspicuous 
for  rank  or  wit  of  style,  or  for  a  combination  of  these 
qualities,  was  elected  King  of  the  Eevel,  and  until  the 
close  of  the  long  frolic  he  was  despot  and  sole  master  of 
the  position — so  long  as  he  did  not  disregard  a  few  not 
vexations  conditions  by  which  the  benchers  limited  his 
authority.  He  surrounded  himself  with  a  mock  court, 
exacted  homage  from  banisters  and  students,  made  pro- 
clamations to  his  loyal  children,  sat  on  a  throne  at  daily 
banquets,  and  never  appeared  in  public  without  a  body- 
guard, and  a  numerous  company  of  musicians,  to  protect 
his  person  and  delight  his  ear. 

The  wit  and  accomplishments  of  the  younger  lawyers 
were  signally  displayed  in  the  dramatic  interludes  that 
usually  enlivened  these  somewhat  heavy  and  sluggish 
jollifications.  Not  only  did  they  write  the  pieces,  and  put 
them  before  the  audience  with  cunning  devices  for  the 
production  of  scenic  effect,  but  they  were  their  own 
actors.     It  was  not  long  before  their  •  moralities '  were 


232  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

seasoned  with  political  sentiments  and  allusions  to  public 
affairs.  For  instance,  when  Wolsey  was  in  the  fulness 
of  his  power,  Sergeant  Roo  ventured  to  satirize  the 
Cardinal  in  a  masque  with  which  Gray's  Inn  entertained 
Henry  "VTII.  and  his  courtiers.  Hall  records  that, 
"  This  plaie  was  so  set  furth  with  riche  and  costlie  apparel, 
with  strange  diuises  of  maskes  and  morrishes,  that  it  was 
highly  praised  of  all  menne  saving  the  Cardinall,  whiche 
imagined  that  the  plaie  had  been  deuised  of  him,  and  in 
greate  furie  sent  for  the  said  Maister  Roo,  and  toke  from 
hym  his  coife,  and  sent  him  to  the  Flete,  and  after  he 
sent  for  the  yoong  gentlemen  that  plaied  in  the  plaie,  and 
them  highly  rebuked  and  threatened,  and  sent  one  of 
them,  called  Thomas  Moyle,  of  Kent,  to  the  Flete;  but 
by  means  of  friendes  Master  Roo  and  he  wer  deliuered  at 
last."  The  author  stoutly  denied  that  he  intended  to 
satirize  the  Cardinal;  and  the  chronicler,  believing  the 
sergeant's  assertions,  observes,  "  This  plaie  sore  displeased 
the  Cardinal,  and  yet  it  was  never  meant  to  him." 
That  the  presentation  of  plays  was  a  usual  feature  of  the 
festivals  at  Gray's  Inn  may  be  inferred  from  the  passage 
where  Dugdale,  in  his  notes  on  that  society,  says; — "In 
4  Edw.  VI.  (17  Nov.),  it  was  also  ordered  that  henceforth 
there  should  be  no  comedies  called  Interludes  in  this 
House  out  of  Term  time,  but  when  the  feast  of  the 
Nativity  of  our  Lord  is  solemnly  observed.  And  that 
when  there  shall  be  any  such  comedies,  then  all  the 
society  at  that  time  in  commons  to  bear  the  charge  of 
the  apparel." 

Notwithstanding  her  anxiety  for  the  maintenance  of 
good  discipline  in  the  Inns  of  Court,  Queen  Elizabeth 
encouraged  the  Societies  to  celebrate  their  feasts  with 
costliness  and  liberal  hospitality,  and  her  taste  for 
dramatic  entertainments  increased  the  splendor  and 
frequency  of  theatrical  diversions  amongst  the  lawyers. 


Amateur  Theatricals.  233 

Christopher  Hatton's  name  is  connected  with  the  history  ■ 
of  the  English  drama,  by  the  acts  which  he  contributed 
to  'The  Tragedie  of  Tancred  and  Gismunda,  compiled 
by  the  gentlemen  of  the  Inner  Temple,  and  by  them 
presented  before  her  majestie;'  and  he  was  one  of  the 
chief  actors  in  that  ponderous  and  extravagant  mummery 
with  which  the  Inner  Temple  kept  Christmas  in  the 
fourth  year  of  Elizabeth's  reign. 

The  circumstances  of  that  festival  merit  special  notice. 

In  the  third  year  of  Elizabeth's  reign  the  Middle 
Temple  and  the  Inner  Temple  were  at  fierce  war,  the 
former  society  having  laid  claim  to  Lyon's  Inn,  which 
had  been  long  regarded  as  a  dependency  of  the  Inner 
Temple.  The  two  Chief  Justices,  Sir  Robert  Catlyn  and 
Sir  James  Dyer,  were  known  to  think  well  of  the 
claimant's  title,  and  the  masters  of  the  Inner  Temple 
bench  anticipated  an  adverse  decision,  when  Lord  Robert 
Dudley  (afterwards  Earl  of  Leicester)  came  to  their  relief 
with  an  order  from  Queen  Elizabeth  enjoining  the  Middle 
Templars  no  longer  to  vex  their  neighbors  in  the 
matter.  Submission  being  the  only  course  open  to  them, 
the  lawyers  of  the  Middle  Temple  desisted  from  their 
claim;  and  the  Masters  of  the  Inner  Temple  Bench  ex- 
pressed their  great  gratitude  to  Lord  Robert  Dudley, 
"  by  ordering  and  enacting  that  no  person  or  persons  of 
their  society  that  then  were,  or  thereafter  should  be, 
should  be  retained  of  councell  against  him  the  said  Lord 
Robert,  or  his  heirs;  and  that  the  arms  of  the  said  Lord 
Robert  should  be  set  up  and  placed  in  some  convenient 
place  in  their  Hall  as  a  continual  monument  of  his  lord- 
ship's favor  unto  them." 

Further  honors  were  paid  to  this  nobleman  at  the 
ensuing  Christmas,  when  the  Inner  Temple  held  a  revel 
of  unusual  magnificence  and  made  Lord  Robert  the 
ruler  of  the  riot.     Whilst  the  holidays  lasted  the  young 


234  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

lord's  title  and  style  were  "  Pallaphilos,  prince  of  Sophie, 
High  Constable  Marshal  of  the  Knights  Templars,  and 
Patron  of  the  Honorable  Order  of  Pegasus."  And  he 
kept  a  stately  court,  having  for  his  chief  officers — Mr. 
Onslow  (Lord  Chancellor),  Anthony  Staple  ton  (Lord 
Treasurer),  Robert  Kelway  (Lord  Privy  Seal),  John 
Fuller  (Chief  Justice  of  the  King's  Bench),  "William 
Pole  (Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas),  Roger  Man- 
wood  (Chief  Baron  of  the  Exchequer),  Mr.  Bashe, 
(Steward  of  the  Household),  Mr.  Copley  (Marshal  of  the 
Household),  Mr.  Paten  (Chief  Butler),  Christopher 
Hat  ton  (Master  of  the  Grame),  Messieurs  Bias  ton,  Yorke, 
Penston,  Jervise  (Masters  of  the  Revels),  Mr.  Parker 
(Lieutenant  of  the  Tower),  Mr.  Kendall  (Carver),  Mr. 
Marty n  (Ranger  of  the  Forests),  and  Mr.  Stradling 
(Sewer).  Besides  these  eighteen  Placemen,  Pallaphilos 
had  many  other  mock  officers,  whose  names  are  not  re- 
corded, and  he  was  attended  by  a  body-guard  of  four- 
score members  of  the  Inn. 

From  the  pages  of  Gerard  Leigh  and  Dugdale,  the 
reader  can  obtain  a  sufficiently  minute  account  of  the 
pompons  ceremonials  and  heavy  buffooneries  of  the 
season.  He  may  learn  some  of  the  special  services  and 
contributions  which  Prince  Pallaphilos  required  of  his 
chief  courtiers,  and  take  note  how  Mr.  Paten,  as  Chief 
Butler,  had  to  provide  seven  dozen  silver  and  gilt  spoons, 
twelve  dozen  silver  and  gilt  salt-cellars,  twenty  silver  and 
gilt  candlesticks,  twenty  fine  large  table-cloths  of  damask 
and  diaper,  twenty  dozen  white  napkins,  three  dozen 
fair  large  towels,  twenty  dozen  white  cups  and  green 
pots,  to  say  nothing  of  carving-knives,  carving  table, 
tureens,  bread,  beer,  ale,  and  wine.  The  reader  also 
may  learn  from  those  chroniclers  how  the  company  were 
placed  according  to  degrees  at  different  tables;  how  the 
banquets  were  served  to  the  sound  of  drums  and  fifes; 


Amateur  Theatricals.  235 

how  the  boar's  head  was  brought  in  upon  a  silver  dish; 
how  the  gentlemen  in  gowns,  the  trumpeters,  and  other 
musicians  followed  the  boar's  head  in  stately  procession ; 
and  how,  by  a  rule  somewhat  at  variance  with  modern 
notions  concerning  old  English  hospitality,  strangers  of 
worth  were  expected  to  pay  in  cash  for  their  entertain- 
ment, eightpence  per  head  being  the  charge  for  dinner 
on  the  day  of  Christmas  Eve,  and  twelve-pence  being 
demanded  from  each  stranger  for  his  dinner  on  the  fol- 
lowing day. 

Ladies  were  not  excluded  from  all  the  festivities; 
though  it  may  be  presumed  they  did  not  share  in  all 
the  riotous  meals  of  the  period.  It  is  certain  that 
they  were  invited,  together  with  the  young  law-students 
from  the  Inns  of  Chancery,  to  see  a  play  and  a  masque 
acted  in  the  hall;  that  seats  were  provided  for  their 
special  accommodation  in  the  hall  whilst  the  sports  were 
going  forward;  and  that  at  the  close  of  the  dramatic 
performances  the  gallant  dames  and  pretty  girls  were 
entertained  by  Pallaphilos  in  the  library  with  a  suitable 
banquet;  whilst  the  mock  Lord  Chancellor,  Mr.  Onslow, 
presided  at  a  feast  in  the  hall,  which  with  all  possible 
speed  had  been  converted  from  theatrical  to  more  appro- 
priate uses. 

But  though  the  fu"n  was  rare  and  the  array  was  splen- 
did to  idle  folk  of  the  sixteenth  century,  modern 
taste  would  deem  such  gaiety  rude  and  wearisome,  would 
call  the  ladies'  banquet  a  disorderly  scramble,  and  think 
the  whole  frolic  scarce  fit  for  schoolboys.  And  in  many 
respects  those  revels  of  olden  time  were  indecorous, 
noisy,  comfortless  affairs.  There  must  have  been  a  sad 
want  of  room  and  fresh  air  in  the  Inner  Temple  dining- 
hall,  when  all  the  members  of  the  inn,  the  selected 
students  from  the  subordinate  Inns  of  Chancery,  and 
half  a  hundred  ladies   (to  say  nothing  of  Mr.    Gerard 


236  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

Leigh  and  illustrious  strangers),  had  crowded  into  the 
space  set  apart  for  the  audience.  At  the  dinners  what 
wrangling  and  tumult  must  have  arisen  through  squab- 
bles for  place,  and  the  thousand  mishaps  that  always 
attend  an  endeavor  to  entertain  five  hundred  gentle- 
men at  a  dinner,  in  a  room  barely  capacious  enough  for 
the  proper  accommodation  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  persons. 
Unless  this  writer  greatly  errs,  spoons  and  knives  were 
in  great  request,  and  table  linen  was  by  no  means  'fair 
and  spotless '  towards  the  close  of  the  rout. 

Superb,  on  that  holyday,  was  the  aspect  of  Prince 
Pallaphilos.  Wearing  a  complete  suit  of  elaborately 
wrought  and  richly  gilt  armor,  he  bore  above  his  helmet 
a  cloud  of  curiously  dyed  feathers,  and  held  a  gilt 
pole-axe  in  his  hand.  By  his  side  walked  the  Lieutenant 
of  the  Tower  (Mr.  Parker),  clad  in  white  armor,  and 
like  Pallaphilos  furnished  with  feathers  and  a  pole-axe. 

On  entering  the  hall  the  prince  and  his  Lieutenant  of 
the  Tower  were  preceded  by  sixteen  trumpeters  (at  full 
blare),  four  drummers  (at  full  drum),  and  a  company  of 
fifers  (at  full  whistle),  and  followed  by  four  men  in  white 
armor,  bearing  halberds  in  their  hands.  Thrice  did 
this  procession  march  round  the  fire  that  blazed  in  the 
centre  of  the  hall;  and  when  in  the  course  of  these 
three  circuits  the  four  halberdiers  and  the  musicians  had 
trodden  upon  everybody's  toes  (their  own  included),  and 
when  moreover  they  had  blown  themselves  out  of  time 
and  breath,  silence  was  proclaimed;  and  Prince  Palla- 
philos, having  laid  aside  his  pole-axe  and  his  naked 
sword  and  a  few  other  trifles,  took  his  seat  at  the 
urgent  entreaty  of  the  mock  Lord  Chancellor. 

But  Kit  Hatton's  appearance  and  part  in  the  proceed- 
ings were  even  more  outrageously  ridiculous.  The 
future  Lord  Chancellor  of  England  was  then  a  very  ele- 
gant and  witty  young  fellow,  proud  of  his  quick  humor 


Amateur  Iheatricals.  237 

and  handsome  face,  but  far  prouder  of  his  exquisitely 
proportioned  legs.  No  sooner  had  Prince  Pallaphilos 
taken  his  seat,  at  the  Lord  Chancellor's  suggestion,  than 
Kit  Hatton  (as  master  of  the  game)  entered  the  hall, 
dressed  in  a  complete  suit  of  green  velvet,  and  holding  a 
green  bow  in  his  left  hand.  His  quiver  was  supplied 
with  green  arrows,  and  round  his  neck  was  slung  a 
hunting-horn.  By  Kit's  side,  arrayed  in  exactly  the 
same  style,  walked  the  Ranger  of  the  Forests  (Mr. 
Martyn) ;  and  having  forced  their  way  into  the  crowded 
chamber,  the  two  young  men  blew  three  blasts  of  venery 
upon  their  horns,  andthen  paced  three  times  round  the 
fire.  After  thus  parading  the  hall  they  paused  before 
the  Lord  Chancellor,  to  whom  the  Master  of  Game  made 
three  curtsies,  and  then  on  his  knees  proclaimed  the 
desire  of  his  heart  to  serve  the  mighty  Prince  Palla- 
philos. 

Having  risen  from  his  kneeling  posture  Kit  Hatton 
blew  his  horn,  and  at  the  signal  his  huntsman  entered 
the  room,  bringing  with  him  a  fox,  a  cat,  and  ten  couples 
of  hounds.  Forthwith  the  fox  was  released  from  the 
pole  to  which  it  was  bound;  and  when  the  luckless  crea- 
ture had  crept  into  a  corner  under  one  of  the  tables,  the 
ten  couples  of  hounds  were  sent  in  pursuit.  It  is  a  fact 
that  English  gentlemen  in  the  sixteenth  century  thus 
amused  themselves  with  a  fox-hunt  in  a  densely  crowded 
dining-room.  Over  tables  and  under  tables,  up  the  hall 
and  down  the  hall,  those  score  hounds  went  at  full  cry 
after  a  miserable  fox,  which  they  eventually  ran  into  and 
killed  in  the  cinder-pit,  or  as  Dugdale  expresses  it,  "  be- 
neath the  fire."  That  work  achieved,  the  cat  was  turned 
off,  and  the  hounds  sent  after  her,  with  much  blowing  of 
horns,  much  cracking  of  whips,  and  deafening  cries  of 
excitement  from  the  gownsmen,  who  tumbled  over  one 
another  in  their  eagerness  to  be  in  at  the  death. 


238       "  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

THE  RIVER  AND  THE  STRAND  BY  TORCHLIGHT. 

SCARCELY  less  out  of  place  in  the  dining-hall  than 
Kit  Hatton's  hounds,  was  the  mule  fairly  mounted 
on  which  the  Prince  Pallaphilos  made  his  appearance  at 
the  High  Table  after  supper,  when  he  notified  to  his  sub- 
jects in  what  manner  they  were  to  disport  themselves  till 
bedtime.  Thus  also  when  the  Prince  of  Purpoole  kept 
his  court  at  Gray's  Inn,  a.  d.  1594,  the  prince's  champion 
rode  into  the  dining-hall  upon  the  back  of  a  fiery 
charger  which,  like  the  rider,  was  clothed  in  a  panoply 
of  steel. 

In  costliness  and  riotous  excess  the  Prince  of  Purpoole's 
revel  at  Gray's  Inn  was  not  inferior  to  any  similar  fes- 
tivity in  the  time  of  Elizabeth.  On  the  20th  of  December, 
St.  Thomas's  Eve,  the  Prince  (one  Master  Henry  Holmes, 
a  Norfolk  gentleman)  took  up  his  quarters  in  the  Great 
Hall  of  the  Inn,  and  by  the  3rd  day  of  January  the 
grandeur  and  comicality  of  his  proceedings  had  created 
so  much  talk  throughout  the  town  that  the  Lord  Trea- 
surer Burghley,  the  Earls  of  Cumberland,  Essex,  Shrews- 
bury and  Westmoreland,  the  Lords  Buckhurst,  Windsor, 
Sheffield,  Compton,  and  a  magnificent  array  of  knights 
and  ladies  visited  Gray's  Inn  Hall  on  that  day  and  saw 
the  masque  which  the  revellers  put  upon  the  stage.  After 
the  masque  there  was  a  banquet,  which  was  followed  by 
a  ball.  On  the  following  day  the  prince,  attended  by 
eighty  gentlemen  of  Gray's  Inn  and  the  Temple  (each 
of  the  eighty  wearing  a  plume  on  his  head),  dined  in 
state  with  the  Lord  Mayor  and  aldermen  of  the  city,  at 
Crosby  Place.  The  frolic  continued  for  many  days  more; 
the  royal  Purpoole  on  one  occasion  visiting  Blackwall 
with   a  splendid  retinue,  on  another    (Twelfth   Night) 


Amateur  Theatricals.  239 

receiving  a  gallant  assembly  of  lords,  ladies,  and  Knights, 
at  his  court  in  Gray's  Inn,  and  on  a  third  (Shrovetide) 
visiting  the  queen  herself  at  Greenwich,  when  Her 
Majesty  warmly  applauded  the  masque  set  before  her  by 
the  actors  who  were  members  of  the  Prince's  court.  So 
delighted,  was  Elizabeth  with  the  entertainment,  that  she 
graciously  allowed  the  masquers  to  kiss  her  right  hand, 
and  loudly  extolled  Gray's  Inn  "as  an  house  she  was 
much  indebted  to,  for  it  did  always  study  for  some  sports 
to  present  unto  her;"  whilst  to  the  mock  Prince  she 
showed  her  favor,  by  placing  in  his  hand  the  jewel  (set 
with  seventeen  diamonds  and  fourteen  rubies)  which  he 
had  won  by  valor  and  skill  in  the  tournament  which 
formed  part- of  the  Shrovetide  sports. 

Numerous  entries  in  the  records  of  the  inns  testify  to 
the  importance  assigned  by  the  olden  lawyers  to  their 
periodic  feasts;  and  though  in  the  fluctuations  of  public 
opinion  with  regard  to  the  effects  of  dramatic  amuse- 
ments, certain  benchers,  or  even  all  the  benchers  of  a 
particular  inn,  may  be  found  at  times  discountenancing 
the  custom  of  presenting  masques,  the  revels  were  usually 
diversified  and  heightened  by  stage  plays.  Not  only 
were  interludes  given  at  the  high  and  grand  holidays 
styled  Solemn  Revels,  but  also  at  the  minor  festivities 
termed  Post  Eevels  they  were  usually  had  recourse  to  for 
amusement.  "Besides  those  solemn  revels,  or  measures 
aforesaid,"  says  Dugdale,  concerning  the  old  usages  of 
the  'Middle  Temple,'  "they  had  wont  to  be  entertained 
with  Post  Revels  performed  by  the  better  sort  of  the 
young  gentlemen  of  the  society,  with  galliards,  corrantoes, 
and  other  dances,  or  else  with  stage-plays:  the  first  of 
these  feasts  being  at  the  beginning,  and  the  other  at  the 
latter  end  of  Christmas.  But  of  late  years  these  Post 
Revels  have  been  disused,  both  here  and  in  the  other 
Inns  of  Court." 


240  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

Besides  producing  and  acting  some  of  our  best  Pre- 
Shakespaerian  dramas,  the  Elizabethan  lawyers  put  upon 
the  stage  at  least  one  of  William  Shakespeare's  plays. 
From  the  diary  of  a  barrister  (supposed  to  be  John 
Manningham,  of  the  Middle  Temple),  it  is  learnt  that 
the  Middle  Templar's  acted  Shakespeare's '  Twelfth  Night' 
at  the  Readers'  feast  on  Candlemas  Day,  1601-2.* 

In  the  following  reign,  the  masques  of  the  lawyers  in 
no  degree  fell  off  with  regard  to  splendor.  Seldom  had 
the  Thames  presented  a  more  picturesque  and  exhilarating 
spectacle  than  it  did  on  the  evening  of  February  20, 1612, 
when  the  gentlemen  masquers  of  Gray's  Inn  and  the 
Temple,  entered  the  king's  royal  barge  at  Winchester 
House,  at  seven  o'clock,  and  made  the  voyage  to  White- 
hall, attended  by  hundreds  of  barges  and  boats,  each 
vessel  being  so  brilliantly  illuminated  that  the  lights 
reflected  upon  the  ripples  of  the  river,  seemed  to  be 
countless  As  though  the  hum  and  huzzas  of  the  vast 
multitude  on  the  water  were  insufficient  to  announce  the 
approach  of  the  dazzling  pageant,  guns  marked  the  pro- 
gress of  the  revellers,  and  as  they  drew  near  the  palace, 
all  the  attendant  bands  of  musicians  played  the  same 
stirring  tune  with  uniform  time.  It  is  on  record  that  the 
king  received  the  amateur  actors  with  an  excess  of  con- 
descension, and  was  delighted  with  the  masque  which 
Master  Beaumont  of  the  Inner  Temple,  and  his  friend, 
Master  Fletcher,  had  written  and  dedicated  "to  the 
worthy  Sir  Francis  Bacon,  his  Majesty's  Solicitor-General, 
and  the  grave  and  learned  bench  of  the  anciently-called 


*  The  propensity  of  lawyers  for  the  stage,  lingered  amongst  barristers  on 
Circuit,  to  a  comparatively  recent  date.  '  Old  stagers  '  of  the  Home  and  Western 
Circuits,  can  recall  how  the  juniors  of  their  briefless  and  bagless  days  used  to 
entertain  the  natives  of  Ouildford  and  Exeter  with  Shakspaerian  performances. 
The  Northern  Circuit  also  was  at  one  time  famous  for  the  histrionic  ability  of  its 
bar,  but  toward  the  close  of  the  last  century,  the  dramatic  recreations  of  its  junior 
members  were  discountenanced  by  the  Grand  Court. 


Amateur  Theatricals.  241 

houses  of  Grayes  Inn  and  the  Inner  Temple,  and  the 
Inner  Temple  and  Grayes  Inn.''  The  cost  of  this  enter- 
tainment was  defrayed  by  the  members  of  the  two  inns — 
each  reader  paying  £A,  each  ancient,  £2  10s.;  each 
barrister,  £2,  and  each  student,  20s. 

The  Inner  Temple  and  Gray's  Inn  having  thus  testified 
their  loyalty  and  dramatic  taste,  in  the  following  year  on 
Shrove-Monday  night  (Feb.  15,  1613),  Lincoln's  Inn  and 
the  Middle  Temple,  with  no  less  splendor  and  eclat, 
enacted  at  "Whitehall  a  masque  written  by  George  Chap- 
man. For  this  entertainment,  Inigo  Jones  designed  and 
perfected  the  theatrical  decorations  in  a  style  worthy  of 
an  exhibition  that  formed  part  of  the  gaieties  with  which 
the  marriage  of  the  Palsgrave  with  the  Princess  Elizabeth 
was  celebrated.  And  though  the  masquers  went  to 
"Whitehall  by  land,  their  progress  was  not  less  pompous 
than  the  procession  which  had  passed  up  the  Thames  in 
the  February  of  the  preceding  year.  Having  mustered 
in  Chancery  Lane,  at  the  official  residence  of  the  Master 
of  the  Rolls,  the  actors  and  their  friends  delighted  the 
town  with  a  gallant  spectacle.  Mounted  on  richly-capa- 
risoned and  mettlesome  horses,  they  rode  from  Fleet 
Street  up  the  Strand,  and  by  Charing  Cross  to  "White- 
hall, through  a  tempest  of  enthusiasm.  Every  house 
was  illuminated,  every  window  was  crowded  with  faces, 
on  every  roof  men  stood  in  rows,  from  every  balcony 
bright  eyes  looked  down  upon  the  gay  scene,  and  from 
basement  to  garret,  from  kennel  to  roof-top  throughout 
the  long  way,  deafening  cheers  testified,  whilst  they  in- 
creased the  delight  of  the  multitude.  Such  a  pageant 
would,  even  in  these  sober  days,  rouse  London  from  her 
cold  propriety.  Having  thrown  aside  his  academic  robe, 
each  masquer  had  donned  a  fantastic  dress  of  silver  cloth 
embroidered  with  gold  lace,  gold  plate,  and  ostrich  plumes. 
He  wore  across  his  breast  a  gold  baldrick,  round  his  neck 
11 


242  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

a  ruff  of  white  feathers  brightened  with  pearls  and  silver 
lace,  and  on  his  head  a  coronal  of  snowy  plumes.  Be- 
fore each  mounted  masquer  rode  a  torch-bearer,  whose 
right  hand  waved  a  scourge  of  flame,  instead  of  a  leathern 
thong.  In  a  gorgeous  chariot,  preceded  by  a  long  train 
of  heralds,  were  exhibited  the  Dramatis  Person® — Honor, 
Plutus,  Eunomia,  Phemeis,  Capriccio— arrayed  in  their 
appointed  costumes;  and  it  was  rumored  that  the  golden 
canopy  of  their  coach  had  been  bought  for  an  enormous 
sum.  Two  other  triumphal  cars  conveyed  the  twelve 
chief  musicians  of  the  kingdom,  and  these  masters  of 
melody  were  guarded  by  torch-bearers,  marching  two 
deep  before  and  behind,  and  on  either  side  of  the  glitter- 
ing carriages.  Preceding  the  musicians,  rode  a  troop  of 
ludicrous  objects,  who  roused  the  derision  of  the  mob, 
and  made  fat  burghers  laugh  till  tears  ran  down  their 
cheeks.  They  were  the  mock  masque,  each  resembling 
an  ape,  each  wearing  a  fantastic  dress  that  heightened 
the  hideous  absurdity  of  his  monkey's  visage,  each  riding 
upon  an  ass,  or  small  pony,  and  each  of  them  throwing 
shells  upon  the  crowd  by  way  of  a  largess.  In  the  front 
of  the  mock  masque,  forming  the  vanguard  of  the  entire 
spectacle,  rode  fifty  gentlemen  of  the  Inns  of  Court, 
reining  high-bred  horses,  and  followed  by  their  running 
footmen,  whose  liveries  added  to  the  gorgeous  magnifi- 
cence of  the  display. 

Besides  the  expenses  which  fell  upon  inviduals  taking 
part  in  the  play,  or  procession,  this  entertainment  cost 
the  two  inns  £1086  8s.  l\d.  About  the  same  time  Gray's 
"Inn,  at  the  instigation  of  Attorney  General  Sir  Francis 
Bacon,  performed  '  The  Masque  of  Flowers '  before  the 
lords  and  ladies  of  the  court,  in  the  Banqueting-house, 
Whitehall;  and  six  years  later  Thomas  Middleton's 
'Inner  Temple  Masque,  or  Masque  of  Heroes'  was 
presented  before  a  goodly  company  of  grand  ladies  by 
the  Inner  Templars. 


Amateur  Theatricals.  243 

CHAPTER  XXXL 

ANTI-PRYlfNE. 

OF  all  the  masques  mentioned  in  the  records  of  the 
Inns  of  Court,  the  most  magnificent  and  costly, was 
the  famous  Anti-Prynne  demonstration,  by  which  the 
lawyers  endeavored  to  show  their  contemptuous  dis- 
approval of  a  work  that  inveighed  against  the  licentious- 
ness of  the  stage,  and  preferred  a  charge  of  wanton  levity 
against  those  who  encouraged  theatrical  performances. 

Whilst  the  '  Histriomastix '  rendered  the  author  ridicu- 
lous to  mere  men  of  pleasure,  it  roused  fierce  animosities 
by  the  truth  and  fearless  completeness  of  its  assertions; 
but  to  no  order  of  society  was  the  famous  attack  on  the 
stage  more  offensive  than  to  the  lawyers;  and  of  lawyers 
the  members  of  Lincoln's  Inn  were  the  most  vehement 
in  their  displeasure.  The  actors  writhed  under  the 
attack;  the  lawyers  were  literally  furious  with  rage — 
for  whilst  rating  them  soundly  for  their  love  of  theatrical 
amusements,  Prynne  almost  contrived  to  make  it  seem 
that  his  views  were  acceptable  to  the  wisest  and  most 
reverend  members  of  the  legal  profession.  Himself  a 
barrister  of  Lincoln's  Inn,  he  with  equal  craft  and  audacity 
complimented  the  benchers  of  that  society  on  the  firmness 
with  which  they  had  forbidden  professional  actors  to  take 
part  in  the  periodic  revels  of  the  inn,  and  on  their  incli- 
nation to  govern  the  society  in  accordance  with  Puritani- 
cal principles.  Addressing  his  "  Much  Honored  Friends, 
the  Right  Worshipful  Masters  of  the  Bench  of  the  Honor- 
able Flourishing  Law  Society  of  Lincoln's  Inne,"  the 
utter-barrister  said:  "For  whereas  other  Innes  of  Court 
(I  know  not  by  what  evil  custom,  and  worse  example) 
admit  of  common  actors  and  interludes  upon  their  -two 
grand  festivalls,  to  recreate  themselves  withall,  notwith- 


244  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

standing  the  statutes  of  our  Kingdome  (of  which  lawyers, 
of  all  others,  should  be  most  observant),  have  branded  all 
professed  stage-players  for  infamous  rogues,  and  stage- 
playes  for  unlawful  pastimes,  especially  on  Lord's-dayes 
and  other  solemn  holidayes,  on  which  these  grand  dayes 
ever  fall;  yet  such  hath  been  your  pious  tender  care,  not 
only  of  this  societie's  honor,  but  also  of  the  young 
students'  good  (for  the  advancing  of  whose  piety  and 
studies  you  have  of  late  erected  a  magnificent  chapel,  and 
since  that  a  library),  that  as  you  have  prohibited  by  late 
publicke  orders,  all  disorderly  Bacchanalian  Grand-Christ- 
masses  (more  fit  for  pagans  than  Christians;  for  the 
deboisest  roarers  than  grave  civill  students,  who  should 
be  patternes  of  sobriety  unto  others),  together  with  all 
publicke  dice-play  in  the  Hall  (a  most  pernicious,  in- 
famous game;  condemned  in  all  ages;  all  places,  not 
onely  by  oouncels,  fathers,  divines,  civilians,  canonists, 
politicians,  and  other  Christian  writers;  by  divers  Pagan 
authors  of  all  sorts,  and  by  Mahomet  himself  e;  but  likewise 
by  sundry  heathen,  yea,  Christian  Magistrates '  edicts)." 
Concerning  the  London  theatres  he  observes  that  the 
"  two  old  play  houses  "  (i.e.}  the  Fortune  and  the  Red 
Bull),  the  "new  theatre"  (i.e.,  Whitefriars  play-house), 
and  two  other  established  theatres,  being  found  inade- 
quate to  the  wants  of  the  play-going  public,  a  sixth 
theatre  had  recently  been  opened.  "The  multitude  of 
our  London  play-haunters  being  so  augmented  now,  that 
all  the  ancient  Divvel's  Chappels  (for  so  the  fathers  style 
all  play-houses)  being  five  in  number,  are  not  sufficient 
to  containe  their  troops,  whence  we  see  a  sixth  now  added 
to  them,  whereas  even  in  vitious  Nero  his  raigne  there 
were  but  three  standing  theatres  in  Pagan  Rome  (though 
far  more  splendid  than  Christian  London),  and  those 
three  too  many."  Having  thus  enumerated  some  of  the 
saddest  features  of  his  age,  the  author  of  the    '  Player's 


Amateur  Iheatricals.  245 

Scourge  '  again  commends  the  piety  and  decorum  of  the 
Lincoln's  Inn  Benchers,  saying,  '*  So  likewise  in  imita- 
tion of  the  ancient  Lacedaemonians  and  Massilienses, 
or  rather  of  primitive  zealous  Christians,  you  have 
always  from  my  first  admission  into  your  society,  and 
long  before,  excluded  all  common  players  with  their  un- 
godly interludes,  from  all  your  solemn  festivals." 

If  the  benchers  of  one  Inn  winced  under  Prynne's 
1  expressions  of  approval,'  the  students  of  all  the  Inns  of 
Court  were  even  more  displeased  with  the  author  who,  in 
a  dedicatory  letter  "  to  the  right  Christian,  Generous 
Young  Gentlemen-Students  of  the  four  Innes  of  Court, 
and  especially  those  of  Lincolne's  Inne,"  urged  them  to 
"  at  last  falsifie  that  ignominious  censure  which  some 
English  writers  in  their  printed  works  have  passed  upon 
Innes  of  Court  Students,  of  whom  they  record: — That 
Innes  of  Court  men  were  undone  but  for  players,  that 
they  are  their  chiefest  guests  and  imployment,  and  the 
sole  business  that  makes  them  afternoon's  men;  that  is 
one  of  the  first  things  they  learne  as  soon  as  they  are 
admitted,  to  see  stage-playes,  and  take  smoke  at  a  play- 
house, which  they  commonly  make  their  studie ;  where  they 
quickly  learne  to  follow  all  fashions,  to  drinke  all  healths, 
to  wear  favours  and  good  cloathes,  to  consort  with 
ruffianly  companions,  to  swear  the  biggest  oaths,  to 
quarrel  easily,  fight  desperately,  quarrel  inordinately,  to 
spend  their  patrimony  ere  it  fall,  to  use  gracefully  some 
gestures  of  apish  compliment,  to  talk  irreligiously,  to 
dally  with  a  mistresse,  and  hunt  after  harlots,  to  prove 
altogether  lawless  in  steed  of  lawyers,  and  to  forget  that 
little  learning,  grace,  and  vertue  which  they  had  before;  so 
much  that  they  grow  at  last  past  hopes  of  ever  doing  good, 
either  to  the  church,  their  country,  their  owne  or  others' 
souls." 

The  storm  of  indignation  which  followed  the  appear- 


246  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

ance  of  the  '  Histriomastix '  was  directed  by  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Four  Inns,  who  felt  themselves  bound  by 
honor  no  less  than  by  interest,  to  disavow  all  connexion 
with,  or  leaning  towards,  the  unpopular  author. 

On  the  suggestion  of  Lincoln's  Inn,  the  four  societies 
combined  their  forces,  and  at  a  cost  of  more  than  twenty 
thousand  pounds,  in  addition  to  sums  spent  by  individuals,  • 
entertained  the  Court  with  that  splendid  masque  which 
Whitelock  has  described  in  his  '  Memoirs '  with  elaborate 
prolixity.  The  piece  entitled  'The  Triumph  of  Peace,' 
was  written  by  Shirley,  and  it  was  produced  with  a  pomp 
and  lavish  expenditure  that  were  without  precedent. 
The  organization  and  guidance  of  the  undertaking  were 
entrusted  to  a  committee  of  eight  barristers,  two  from 
each  inn;  and  this  select  body  comprised  men  who  were 
alike  remarkable  for  talents, 'accomplishments,  and  ambi- 
tion, and  some  of  whom  were  destined  to  play  strangely 
diverse  parts  in  the  drama  of  their  epoch.  It  comprised 
Edward  Hyde,  then  in  his  twenty-sixth  year;  young 
Bulstrode  Whitelock,  who  had  not  yet  astonished  the 
more  decorous  magnates  of  his  country  by  wearing  a  fall- 
ing band  at  the  Oxford  Quarter  Sessions;  Edward 
Herbert,  the  most  unfortunate  of  Cavalier  lawyers ;  John 
Selden,  already  a  middle-aged  man;  John  Finch,  born 
in  the  same  year  as  Selden,  and  already  far  advanced  in 
his  eager  course  to  a  not  honorable  notoriety.  Attorney 
General  Noy  was  also  of  the  party,  but  his  disastrous 
career  was  already  near  its  close. 

The  committee  of  management  had  their  quarters  at 
Ely  House,  Holborn;  and  from  that  historic  palace  the 
masquers  started  for  Whitehall  on  the  eve  of  Candlemas 
Day,  1633-4.  It  was  a  superb  procession.  First 
marched  twenty  tall  footmen,  blazing  in  liveries  of  scarlet 
cloth  trimmed  with  lace,  each  of  them  holding  a  baton 
in  his  right  hand,  and  in  his  left  a  flaring  torch  that 


Amateur  Tkeatineals.  247 

covered  his  face  with  light,  and  made  the  steel  and  silver 
of  his  sword-scabbard  shine  brilliantly.  A  company  of 
the  marshal's  men  marched  next  with  firm  and  even 
steps,  clearing  the  way  for  their  master.  A  burst  of 
deafening  applause  came  from  the  multitude  as  the 
marshal  rode  through  the  gateway  of  Ely  House,  and 
caracoled  over  the  Holborn  way  on  the  finest  charger 
that  the  king's*  stables  could  furnish.  A  perfect  horse- 
man and  the  handsomest  man  then  in  town,  Mr.  Darrel 
of  Lincoln's  Inn,  had  been  elected  to  the  office  of  marshal 
in  deference  to  his  wealth,  his  noble  aspect,  his  fine 
nature,  and  his  perfect  mastery  of  all  manly  sports.  On 
either  side  of  Mr.  Darrel's  horse  marched  a  lacquey  bear- 
ing a  flambeau,. and  the  marshal's  page  was  in  attend- 
ance with  his  master's  cloak.  An  interval  of  some 
twenty  paces,  and  then  came  the  marshal's  body-guard, 
composed  of  one  hundred  mounted  gentlemen  of  the 
Inns  of  Court — twenty-five  from  each  house;  showing  in 
their  faces  the  signs  of  gentle  birth  and  honorable 
nurture;  and  with  strong  hands  reining  mettlesome 
chargers  that  had  been  furnished  for  their  use  by  the 
greatest  nobles  of  the  land.  This  flood  of  flashing 
chivalry  was  succeeded  by  an  anti-masque  of  beggars  and 
cripples,  mounted  on  the  lamest  and  most  unsightly  of 
rat-tailed  srews  and  spavined  ponies,  and  wearing  dresses 
that  threw  derision  on  legal  vestments  and  decorations. 
Another  anti-masque  satirized  the  wild  projects  of  crazy 
speculators  and  inventors;  and  as  it  moved  along  the 
spectators  laughed  aloud  at  the  "  fish-call,  or  looking- 
glass  for  fishes  in  the  sea,  very  useful  for  fishermen  to 
call  all  kinds  of  fish  to  their  nets;"  the  newly-invented 
wind-mate  for  raising  a  breeze  over  becalmed  seas,  the 
"  movable  hydraulic  "  which  should  give  sleep  to  patients 
suffering  under  fever. 

Chariots  and  horsemen,  ^orch-bearers   and  lacqueys, 


248  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

followed  in  order.  "  Tlien  came  the  first  chariot  of  the 
grand  masquers,  which  was  not  so  large  as  those  that 
went  before,  but  most  curiously  framed,  carved,  and 
painted  with  exquisite  art,  and  purposely  for  this  service 
and  occasion.  The  form  of  it  was  after  that  of  the 
Roman  triumphant  chariots.  The  seats  in  it  were  made 
of  oval  form  in  the  back  end  of  the  chariot,  so  that  there 
was  no  precedence  in  them,  and  the  face's  of  all  that  sat 
in  it  might  be  seen  together.  The  colors  of  the  first 
chariot  were  silver  and  crimson,  given  by  the  lot  to  Gray's 
Inn:  the  chariot  was  drawn  with  four  horses  all  abreast, 
and  they  were  covered  to  their  heels  all  over  with  cloth 
of  tissue,  of  the  colors  of  crimson  and  silver,  huge 
plumes  of  white  and  red  feathers  on  their  heads;  the 
coachman's  cap  and  feather,  his  long  coat,  and  his  very 
whip  and  cushion  of  the  same  stuff  and  color.  In  this 
chariot  sat  the  four  grand  masquers  of  Gray's  Inn,  their 
habits,  doublets,  trunk-hose,  and  caps  of  most  rich  cloth 
of  tissue,  and  wrought  as  thick  with  silver  spangles  as 
they  could  be  placed;  large  white  stockings  up  to  their 
trunk-hose,  and  rich  sprigs  in  their  cap,  themselves 
proper  and  beautiful  young  gentlemen.  On  each  side  of 
the  chariot  were  four  footmen  in  liveries  of  the  color  of 
the  chariot,  carrying  huge  flamboys  in  their  hands,  which, 
with  the  torches,  gave  such  a  lustre  to  the  paintings, 
spangles,  and  habits  that  hardly  anything  could  be  in- 
vented to  appear  more  glorious." 

Six  musicians  followed  the  state-chariot  of  Gray's  Inn, 
playing  as  they  went;  and  then  came  the  triumphal  cars 
of  the  Middle  Templars,  the  Inner  Templars,  and  the 
Lincoln's  Inn  men — each  car  being  drawn  by  four  horses 
and  attended  by  torch-bearers,  flambeau-bearers,  and 
musicians.  In  shape  these  four  cars  were  alike,  but 
they  differed  in  the  color  of  their  fittings.  "Whilst 
Gray's  Inn  used  scarlet  and  silver,  the  Middle  Templars 


Amateur  Theatricals.  249 

chose  blue  and  silver  decorations,  and  each  of  the  other 
two  houses  adopted  a  distinctive  color  for  the  housings 
of  their  horses  and  the  liveries  of  their  servants.  It  is 
noteworthy  that  the  inns  (equal  as  to  considerations  of 
dignity)  took  their  places  in  the  pageant  by  lot;  and 
that  the  four  grand  masquers  of  each  inn  were  seated  in 
their  chariot  on  seats  so  constructed  that  none  of  the 
four  took  precedence  of  the  others.  The  inns,  in  days 
when  questions  of  precedence  received  much  attention, 
were  very  particular  in  asserting  their  equality,  whenever 
two  or  more  of  them  acted  in  co-operation.  To  mark 
this  equality,  the  masque  written  by  Beaumont  and 
Fletcher  in  1612  was  described  "The  Masque  of  the 
Inner  Temple  and  Grayes  Inn;  Grayes  Inn  and  the 
Inner  Temple :"  and  the  dedication  of  the  piece  to  Francis 
Bacon,  reversing  this  transposition,  mentions  "  the  allied 
houses  of  Grayes  Inn  and  the  Inner  Temple,  and  the 
Inner  Temple  and  Grayes  Inn,"  these  changes  being 
made  to  point  the  equ^l  rank  of  the  two  fraternities. 

Through  the  illuminated  streets  this  pageant  marched 
to  the  sound  of  trumpets  and  drams,  cymbals  and  fifes, 
amidst  the  deafening  acclamations  of  the  delighted 
town;  and  when  the  lawyers  reached  Whitehall,  the 
king  and  queen  were  so  delighted  with  the  spectacle,  that 
the  procession  was  ordered  to  make  the  circuit  of  the 
tilt-yard  for  the  gratification  of  their  Majesties,  who 
would  fain  see  the  sight  once  again  from  the  windows  of 
their  palace.  Is  there  need  to  speak  of  the  manner  in 
which  the  masque  was  acted,  of  the  music  and  dances,  of 
the  properties  and  scenes,  of  the  stately  banquet  after 
the  play  and  the  grand  ball  which  began  at  a  still  later 
hour,  of  the  king's  urbanity  and  the  graciousness  of 
Henrietta,  who  "  did  the  honor  to  some  of  the  masquers 
to  dance  with  them  herself,  and  to  judge  them  as  good 
dancers  as  she  ever  saw  !" 


250  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

Notwithstanding  a  few  untoward  broils  and  accidents, 
the  entertainment  passed  off  so  satisfactorily  that  '  The 
Triumph  of  Peace '  was  acted  for  a  second  time  in  the 
presence  of  the  king  and  queen,  in  the  Merchant  Taylors' 
Hall.  Other  diversions  of  the  same  kind  followed  with 
scarcely  less  eclat.  At  Whitehall  the  king  himself  and 
some  of  the  choicest  nobles  of  the  land  turned  actors, 
and  performed  a  grand  masque,  on  which  occasion 
the  Templars  were  present  as  spectators  in  seats  of 
honor. 

During  the  Shrovetide  rejoicings  of  1635,  Henrietta 
even  condescended  to  witness  the  performance  of  Dave- 
nant's  Triumphs  of  the  Prince  d' Amour,'  in  the  hall  of 
the  Middle  Temple.  Laying  aside  the  garb  of  royalty, 
she  went  to  the  Temple,  attended  by  a  party  of  lords 
and  ladies,  and  fine  gentlemen  who,  like  herself,  assumed 
for  the  evening  dresses  suitable  to  persons  of  private 
station.  The  Marquis  of  Hamilton,  the  Countess  of 
Denbigh,  the  Countess  of  Holland,  and  Lady  Elizabeth 
Fielding  were  her  companions;  whilst  the  official  attend- 
ants on  her  person  were  the  Earl  of  Holland,  Lord 
Goring,  Mr.  Percy,  and  Mr.  Jermyn.  Led  to  her  place 
by  "Mrs.  Basse,  the  law- woman,"  Henrietta  took  a  seat 
upon  a  scaffold  fixed  along  the  northern  side  of  the  hall, 
and  amidst  a  crush  of  benchers'  wives  and  daughters  saw 
the  play  and  heartily  enjoyed  it. 

Says  Whitelock,  at  the  conclusion  of  his  account  of 
the  grand  masque  given  by  the  four  inns,  "  Thus  these 
dreams  past,  and  these  pomps  vanished."  Scarcely  had 
the  frolic  terminated  when  death  laid  a  chill  hand  on  the 
time-serving  Noy,  who  in  the  consequences  of  his  dis- 
honest counsels  left  a  cruel  legacy  to  the  master  and  the 
country  whom  he  alike  betrayed.  A  few  more  years — 
and  John  Finch,  having  lost  the  Great  Seal,  was  an  exile 
in   a  foreign  land,  destined  to  die  in  penury,  without 


Amateur  Theatricals.  251 

again  setting  foot  on  his  native  soil.  The  graceful  Her- 
bert, whose  smooth  cheek  had  flushed  with  joy  at  Hen- 
rietta's musical  courtesies,  became  for  a  brief  day  the 
mock  Lord  Keeper  of  Charles  H.'s  mock  court  at  Paris, 
and  then,  dishonored  and  disowned  by  his  capricious 
master,  he  languished  in  poverty  and  disease,  until  he 
found  an  obscure  grave  in  the  French  capital.  More 
fortunate  than  his  early  rival,  Edward  Hyde  outlived 
Charles  Stuart's  days  of  adverse  fortune,  and  rose  to  a 
grievous  greatness;  but  like  that  early  rival,  he,  too, 
died  in  exile  in  France.  Perhaps  of  all  the  managers  of 
the  grand  masque  the  scholarly  pedant,  John  Selden,  had 
the  greatest  share  of  earthly  satisfaction.  Not  the  least 
fortunate  of  the  party  was  the  historian  of  "  the  pomp 
and  glory,  if  not  the  vanity  of  the  show,"  who  having 
survived  the  Commonwealth  and  witnessed  the  Restora- 
tion, was  permitted  to  retain  his  paternal  estate,  and  in 
his  last  days  could  tell  his  numerous  descendants  how 
his  old  chum,  Edward  Hyde,  had  risen,  fallen,  and — 
passed  to  another  world. 


CHAPTER  XXXIL 

AN   EMPTY    GRATE. 


WnH  the  revival  of  gaiety  which  attended  and  fol- 
lowed the  Restoration,  revels  and  masques  came 
once  more  into  vogue  at  the  Inns  of  Court,  where,  through- 
out the  Commonwealth,  plays  had  been  prohibited, 
and  festivals  had  been  either  abolished  or  deprived  of 
their  ancient  hilarity.  The  caterers  of  amusement  for 
the  new  king  were  not  slow  to  suggest  that  he  should 
honor  the  lawyers  with  a  visit ;  and  in  accordance  with 


252  A  Book  about  Lwyers. 

their  counsel,  His  Majesty  took  water  on  August  15, 1661, 
and  went  in  the  royal  barge  from  Whitehall  to  the  Tem- 
ple to  dine  at  the  Reader's  feast. 

Heneage  Finch  had  been  chosen  Autumn  Reader  of  that 
inn,  and  in  accordance  with  ancient  usage  he  demonstrat- 
ed his  ability  to  instruct  young  gentlemen  in  the  princi- 
ples cf  English  law,  by  giving  a  series  of  costly  banquets. 
From  the  days  of  the  Tudors  to  the  rise  of  Oliver  Crom- 
well, the  Reader's  feasts  had  been  amongst  the  most  sump- 
tuous and  ostentatious  entertainments  of  the  town — the 
Sergeant's  feasts  scarcely  surpassing  them  in  splendor, 
the  inaugural  dinners  of  lord  mayors  often  lagging  be- 
hind them  in  expense.  But  Heneage  Finch's  lavish  hos- 
pitality outstripped  the  doings  of  all  previous  Readers. 
His  revel  was  protracted  throughout  six  days,  and  on  each 
of  these  days  he  received  at  his  table  the  representative 
members  of  some  high  social  order  or  learned  body.  Be- 
ginning with  a  dinner  to  the  nobility  and  Privy  Council- 
lors, he  finished  with  a  banquet  to  the  king  ;  and  on  the 
intervening  days  he  entertained  the  civic  authorities,  the 
College  of  Physicians,  the  civil  lawyers,  and  the  dignita- 
ries of  the  Church. 

The  king's  visit  was  attended  with  imposing  ceremony, 
and  wanted  no  circumstance  that  could  have  rendered  the 
occasion  more  honorable  to  the  host  or  to  the  society  of 
which  he -was  a  member.  All  the  highest  officers  of  the 
court  accompanied  the  monarch,  and  when  he  stepped 
from  his  barge  at  the  Temple  Stairs,  he  spoke  with  jovial 
urbanity  to  his  entertainer  and  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  of 
the  Common  Pleas,  who  received  him  with  tokens  of  loyal 
deference  and  attachment.  "  On  each  side,"  says  Dug- 
dale,  "  as  His  Majesty  passed,  stood  the  Reader's  servants 
in  scarlet  cloaks  and  white  tabba  doublets  ;  there  being 
a  way  made  through  the  wall  into  the  Temple  Gardens  ; 
and  above  them  on  each  side  the  benchers,  barristers,- 


Amateur  Theatricals.  253 

and  other  gentlemen  of  the  society,  all  in  their  gowns 
and  formalities,  the  loud  music  playing  from  the  time  of 
his  landing  till  he  entered  the  hall ;  where  he  was  received 
with  xx  violins,  which  continued  as  long  as  his  majesty 
stayed."  Fifty  chosen  gentlemen  of  the  inn,  wearing 
their  academic  gowns,  placed  dinner  on  the  table,  and 
waited  on  the  feasters — no  other  servants  being  permitted 
to  enter  the  hall  during  the  progress  of  the  banquet.  On 
the  dais  at  the  top  of  the  hall,  under  a  canopy  of  state, 
the  king  and  his  brother  James  sat  apart  from  men  of 
lower  degree,  whilst  the  nobles  of  Whitehall  occupied 
one  long  table,  under  the  presidency  of  the  Lord  Chan- 
cellor, and  the  chief  personages  of  the  inn  dined  at  a 
corresponding  long  table,  having  the  reader  for  their 
chairman. 

In  the  following  January,  Charles  II.  and  the  Duke  of 
York  honored  Lincoln's  Inn  with  a  visit,  whilst  the  mock 
Prince  de  la  Grange  held  his  court  within  the  walls  of 
that  society.  Nine  years  later — in  the  February  of  1671 
— King  Charles  and  his  brother  James  again  visited  Lin- 
coln's Inn,  on  which  occasion  they  were  entertained  by 
Sir  Francis  Goodericke,  Knt.,  the  reader  of  the  inn,  who 
seems  almost  to  have  gone  beyond  Heneage  Finch  in 
sumptuous  profusion  of  hospitality.  Of  this  royal  visit 
a  particular  account  is  to  be  seen  in  the  Admittance 
Book  of  the  Honorable  Society,  from  which  it  appears 
that  the  royal  brothers  were  attended  by  the  Dukes  of 
Monmouth  and  Richmond  ;  the  Earls  of  Manchester, 
Bath,  and  Anglesea  ;  Viscount  Halifax,  the  Bishop  of 
Ely,  Lord  Newport,  Lord  Henry  Howard,  and  "  divers 
others  of  great  qualitie." 

The  entertainment  in  most  respects  was  a  repetition  of 
Sir  Heneage  Finch's  feast — the  king,  the  Duke  of  York, 
and  Prince  Rupert  dining  on  the  dais  at  the  top  of  the 
hall,  whilst  the  persons  of  inferior  though  high  quality 


254  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

were  regaled  at  two  long  tables,  set  down  the  hall ;  and 
the  gentlemen  of  the  inn  condescending  to  act  as  menial 
servants.  The  reader  himself,  dropping  on  his  knee 
when  he  performed  the  servile  office,  proffered  the  towel 
with  which  the  king  prepared  himself  for  the  repast ; 
and  barristers  of  ancient  lineage  and  professional  emi- 
nence contended  for  the  honor  of  serving  His  Majesty 
with  surloin  and  cheesecake  upon  the  knee,  and  hastened 
with  the  alacrity  of  well-trained  lacqueys  to  do  the  bid- 
ding of  "  the  lords  att  their  table."  Having  eaten  and 
drunk  to  his  lively  satisfaction,,  Charles  called  for  the  Ad- 
mittance Book  of  the  Inn,  and  placed  his  name  on  the 
roll  of  members,  thereby  conferring  on  the  society  an 
honor  for  which  no  previous  king  of  England  had  fur- 
nished a  precedent.  Following  their  chief's  example,  the 
Duke  of  York  and  Prince  Rupert  and  other  nobles  forth- 
with joined  the  fraternity  of  lawyers  ;  and  hastily  don- 
ning students'  gowns,  they  mingled  with  the  troop  of 
gowned  servitors,  and  humbly  waited  on  their  liege 
lord. 

In  like  manner,  twenty-one  years  since  (July  29, 1845) 
when  Queen  Victoria  and  her  lamented  consort  visited 
Lin  coin's  Inn,  on  the  opening  of  the  new  hall,  they  con- 
descended to  enter  their  names  in  the  Admission  Book 
of  the  Inn,  thereby  making  themselves  students  of  the 
society.  Her  Majesty  has  not  been  called  to  the  bar  ; 
but  Prince  Albert  in  due  course  became  a  barrister  and 
bencher.  Repeating  the  action  of  Charles  II.  's  courtiers, 
the  great  Duke  of  Wellington  and  the  bevy  of  great 
nobles  present  at  the  celebration  became  fellow-students 
with  the  queen  ;  and  on  leaving  the  table  the  prince 
walked  down  the  hall,  wearing  a  student's  stuff  gown  (by 
no  means  the  most  picturesque  of  academic  robes),  over 
his  field-marshal's  uniform.  Her  Majesty  forbore  to  dis- 
arrange her  toilet — which  consisted  of  a  blue  bonnet  witn 


Amateur  Theatricals.  255 

blue  feathers,  a  dress  of  Limerick  lace,  and  a  scarlet 
shawl,  with -a  deep  gold  edging — by  putting  her  arms 
through  the  sleeveless  arm-holes  of  a  bombazine  frock. 

Grateful  to  the  lawyers  for  the  cordiality  with  which 
they  welcomed  him  to  the  country,  William  ILL  accepted 
an  invitation  to  the  Middle  Temple,  and  was  entertained 
by  that  society  with  a  banquet  and  a  masque,  of  which 
notice  has  been  taken  in  another  chapter  of  this  work  ; 
and  in  1697-8  Peter  the  Great  was  a  guest  at  the  Christ- 
mas revels  of  the  Templars.  On  that  occasion  the  Czar 
enjoyed  a  favorable  opportunity  for  gratifying  his  love  of 
strong  drink,  and  for  witnessing  the  ease  with  which  our 
ancestors  drank  wine  by  the  magnum  and  punch  by  the 
gallon,  when  they  were  bent  on  enjoyment. 

In  the  greater  refinement  and  increasing  delicacy  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  the  Inns  of  Court  revels,  which 
had  for  so  many  generations  been  conspicuous  amongst 
the  gaieties  of  the  town,  became  less  and  less  magnificent ; 
and  they  altogether  died  out  under  the  second  of  those 
Georges  who  are  thought  by  some  persons  to  have  cor- 
rupted public  morals  and  lowered  the  tastes  of  society. 
In  1733-4,  when  Lord  Chancellor  Talbot's  elevation  to 
the  woolsack  was  celebrated  by  a  revel  in  the  Inner  Tem- 
ple Hall,  the  dulness  and  disorder  of  the  celebration  con- 
vinced the  lawyers  that  they  had  not  acted  wisely  in  at- 
tempting to  revive  usages  that  had  fallen  into  desuetude 
because  they  were  inconvenient  to  new  arrangements  or 
repugnant  to  modern  taste.  No  attempt  was  made  to 
prolong  the  festivity  over  a  succession  of  days.  It  was 
a  revel  of  one  day  ;  and  no  one  wished  to  add  another  to 
the  period  of  riot.  At  two  o'clock  on  Feb.  2, 1733-4,  the 
new  Chancellor,  the  master  of  the  revels,  the  benchers  of 
the  inns,  and  the  guests  (who  were  for  the  most  part 
lawyers),  sat  down  to  dinner  in  the  hall.  The  barristers 
and  students  had  their  ordinary  fare,  with  the  addition 


256  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

of  a  flask  of  claret  to  each  mess  ;  but  a*  superior  repast 
was  served  at  the  High  Table  where  fourteen  students 
(of  whom  the  Chancellor's  eldest  son  was  one),  served  as 
waiters.  "Whilst  the  banquet  was  in  progress,  musicians 
stationed  in  the  gallery  at  the  upper  end  of  the  hall  filled 
the  room  with  deafening  noise,  and  ladies  looked  down 
upon  the  feasters  from  a  large  gallery  which  had  been 
fitted  up  for  their  reception  over  the  screen.  After  din- 
ner, as  soon  as  the  hall  could  be  cleared  of  dishes  and 
decanters,  the  company  were  entertained  with  '  Love  for 
Love,'  and  '  The  Devil  to  Pay,'  performed  by  professional 
actors  who  "  all  came  from  the  Haymarket  in  chairs, 
ready  dressed,  and  (as  it  was  said),  refused  any  gratuity 
for  their  trouble,  looking  upon  the  honor  of  distinguish- 
ing themselves  on  this  occasion  as  sufficient."  The 
players  having  withdrawn,  the  judges,  sergeants,  bench- 
ers, and  other  dignitaries,  danced  ■  round  about  the  coal 
fire  ;'  that  is  to  say,  they  danced  round  about  a  stove  in 
which  there  was  not  a  single  spark  of  fire.  The  congre- 
gation of  many  hundreds  of  persons,  in  a  hall  which  had 
not  comfortable  room  for  half  the  number,  rendered  the 
air  so  oppressively  hot  that  the  master  "of  the  revels 
wisely  resolved  to  lead  his  troop  of  revellers  round  an 
empty  grate.  The  chronicler  of  this  ridiculous  mummery 
observes  :  "  And  all  the  time  of  the  dance  the  ancient 
song,  accompanied  by  music,  was  sung  by  one  Toby 
Aston,  dressed  in  a  bar-gown,  whose  father  had  formerly 
been  Master  of  the  Plea  Office  in  the  King's  Bench. 
When  this  was  over,  the  ladies  came  down  from  the  gal- 
lery, went  into  the  parliament  chamber,  and  stayed  about 
a  quarter  of  an  hour,  while  the  hall  was  being  put  in  or- 
der. They  then  went  into  the  hall  and  danced  a  few 
minuets.  Country  dances  began  at  ten,  and  at  twelve  a 
very  fine  cold  collation  was  provided  for  the  whole  com- 
pany, from  which  they  returned  to  dancing,  which  they 


Amateur  Theatricals.  257 

continued  as  long  as  they  pleased,  and  the  whole  day's 
entertainment  was  generally  thought  to  be  very  genteelly 
and  liberally  conducted.  The  Prince  of  Wales  honored 
the  performance  with  his  company  part  of  the  time  ;  he 
came  into  the  music  incog,  about  the  middle  of  the  play, 
and  went  away  as  soon  as  the  farce  of  'walking round  the 
coal  fire '  was  over." 

With  this  notable  dance  of  lawyers  round  an  empty 
grate,  the  old  revels  disappeared.  In  their  Grand  Days, 
equivalent  to  the  gaudy  days,  or  feast  days,  or  audit  days 
of  the  colleges  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  the  Inns  of 
Court  still  retain  the  last  vestiges  of  their  ancient  jollifi- 
cations, tut  the  uproarious  riot  of  the  obsolete  festivities 
is  but  faintly  echoed  by  the  songs  and  laughter  of  the 
junior  barristers  and  students  who  in  these  degenerate 
times  gladden  their  hearts  and  loosen  their  tongues  with 
an  extra  glass  of  wine  after  grand  dinners,  and  then  has- 
ten back  to  chambers  for  tobacco  and  tea. 

On  the  discontinuance  of  the  revels  the  Inns  of  Court 
lost  their  chief  attractions  for  the  courtly  pleasure-seekers 
of  the  town,  and  many  a  day  passed  before  another  royal 
visit  was  paid  to  any  one  of  the  societies.  In  1734  George 
IH.'s  father  stood  amongst  the  musicians  in  the  Inner 
Temple  Hall ;  and  after  the  lapse  of  one  century  and  eleven 
years  the  present  queen  accepted  the  hospitality  of  Lin- 
coln's Inn.  No  record  exists  of  a  royal  visit  made  to  an 
Inn  of  Court  between  those  events.  Only  the  other  day, 
however,  the  Prince  of  Wales  went  eastwards  and  par- 
took of  a  banquet  in  the  hall  of  Middle  Temple,  of  which 
society  he  is  a  barrister  and  a  bencher. 


PAKT  YIL 

LEGAL  EDUCATION. 


CHAPTER    XXXITL 

INNS  OP  COURT  AND  INNS  OF  CHANCERY. 

SCHOOLS  for  the  study  of  the  Common  Law,  existed 
within  the  bounds  of  the  city  of  London,  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  thirteenth  century.  No  sooner  had  a 
permanent  home  been  assigned  to  the  Court  of  Common 
Pleas,  than  legal  practitioners  fixed  themselves  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Westminster,  or  within  the  walls  of  Lon- 
don. A  legal  society  speedily  grew  up  in  the  city;  and 
some  of  the  older  and  more  learned  professors  of  the 
Common  Law,  devoting  a  portion  of  their  time  and 
energies  to  the  labors  of  instruction,  opened  academies 
for  the  reception  of  students.  Dugdale  notices  a  tradition 
that  in  ancient  times  a  law-school,  called  Johnson's  Inn, 
stood  in  Dowgate,  that  another  existed  in  Pewter  Lane, 
and  that  Paternoster  Row  contained  a  third;  and  it  is 
generally  thought  that  these  three  inns  were  amongst  the 
academies  which  sprung  up  as  soon  as  the  Common  Pleas 
obtained  a  permanent  abode. 


Legal  Education.  259 

The  schools  thus  established  in  the  opening  years  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  were  not  allowed  to  flourish  for 
any  great  length  of  time ;  for  in  the  nineteenth  year  of 
his  reign,  Henry  HE.  suppressed  them  by  a  mandate  ad- 
dressed to  the  mayor  and  sheriffs  of  the  city.  But  though 
this  king  broke  up  the  schools,  the  scholars  persevered 
in  their  study;  and  if  the  king's  mandate  aimed  at  a  com- 
plete discontinuance  of  legal  instruction,  his  policy  was 
signally  defeated. 

Successive  writers  have  credited  Edward  ILL's  reign 
with  the  establishment  of  Inns  of  Court;  and  it  has  been 
erroneously  inferred  that  the  study  of  the  Common  Law 
not  only  languished,  but  was  altogether  extinct  during 
the  period  of  nearly  one  hundred  years  that  intervened 
between  Henry  HI.'s  dissolution  of  the  city  schools  and 
Edward  HI.'s  accession.  Abundant  evidence,  however, 
exists  that  this  was  not  the  case.  Edward  I.,  in  the 
twentieth  year  of  his  reign,  ordered  his  judges  of  the 
Common  Pleas  to  "provide  and  ordain,  from  every 
county,  certain  attorneys  and  lawyers"  (in  the  original 
"  atturnatus  et  apprenticiis ")  "  of  the  best  and  most  apt 
for  their  learning  and  skill,  who  might  do  service  to  his 
court  and  people;  and  those  so  chosen,  and  no  other 
should  follow  his  court,  and  transact  affairs  therein;  the 
words  of  which  order  make  it  clear  that  the  country  con- 
tained a  considerable  body  of  persons  who  devoted  them- 
selves to  the  study  and  practice  of  the  law.  So  also  in 
the  Tear-book,  1  Ed.  HI.,  the  words,  "  et  puis  une  ap- 
prentise  demand,"  show  that  lawyers  holding  legal 
degrees  existed  in  the  very  first  year  of  Edward  HI.'s  reign ; 
a  fact  which  justifies  the  inference  that  in  the  previous 
reign  England  contained  Common  Law  schools  capable 
of  granting  the  legal  degree  of  apprentice.  Again  Dug- 
dale  remarks,  "  In  20  Ed.  HI.,  in  a  quod  ei  deforciat  to 
an  exception  taken,  it  was  answered  by  Sir  Richard  de 
Willoughby  (then  a  learned  justice  of  the  Common  Pleas) 


260  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

and  William  Skip  with,  (afterwards  also  one  of  the  jus- 
tices of  that  court),  that  the  same  was  no  exception 
amongst  the  Apprentices  in  Hostells  or  Inns."  "Whence  it 
is  manifest  that  Inns  of  Court  were  institutions  in  full 
vigor  at  the  time  when  they  have  been  sometimes  re- 
presented as  originally  established. 

But  after  their  expulsion  from  the  city,  there  is  reason 
to  think  that  the  common  lawyers  made  no  attempt  to 
reside  in  colleges  within  its  boundaries.  They  preferred 
to  establish  themselves  on  spots  where  they  could  enjoy 
pure  air  and  rural  quietude,  could  surround  themselves 
with  trees  and  lawns,  or  refresh  their  eyes  with  the  sight 
of  the  silver  Thames.  In  the  earliest  part  of  the  four- 
teenth century,  they  took  possession  of  a  great  palace  that 
stood  on  the  western  outskirt  of  the  town,  and  looked 
westwards  upon  green  fields,  whilst  its  eastern  wall 
abutted  on  New  Street — a  thoroughfare  that  was  sub- 
sequently called  Chancellor's  Lane,  and  has  for  many 
years  been  known  as  Chancery  Lane.  This  palace  had 
been  the  residence  of  Henry  Lacy,  Earl  of  Lincoln,  who 
conferred  upon  the  building  the  name  which  it  still  bears. 
The  earl  died  in  1310,  some  seventeen  years  before  Ed- 
ward m.'s  accession;  and  Thynne,  the  antiquary,  was  of 
opinion  that  no  considerable  period  intervened  between 
Henry  Lacy's  death  and  the  entry  of  the  lawyers.  In  the 
same  century,  the  lawyers  took  possession  of  the  Temple. 
The  exact  date  of  their  entry  is  unknown;  but  Chaucer's 
verse  enables  the  student  to  fix,  with  sufficient  precise- 
ness,  the  period  when  the  more  noble  apprentices  of  the 
law  first  occupied  the  Temple  as  tenanta  of  the  Knight's 
Hospitallers  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem,  who  obtained  a 
grant  of  the  place  from  Edward  HI.*     The  absence  of 

*  Chaucer  mentions  the  Temple  thus: — 

"  A  manciple  there  was  of  the  Temple, 
Of  which  all  ca tours  might  take  euaemple 


Legal  Education.  261 

f  oiler  particulars  concerning  the  early  history  of  the  legal 
Templars,  is  ordinarily  and  with  good  reason  attributed 
to  Wat  Tyler's  rebels,  who  destroyed  the  records  of  the 
fraternity  by  fire.  From  roof  to  basement,  beginning 
with  the  tiles,  and  working  downwards,  the  mob  destroyed 
the  principal  houses  of  the  college;  and  when  they  had 
burnt  all  the  archives  on  which  they  could  lay  hands, 
they  went  off  and  expended  their  remaining  fury  on  other 
buildings,  of  which  the  Knights  of  St.  John  were  pro- 
prietors. 

The  same  men  who  saw  the  lawyers  take  possession  of 
the  Temple  on  the  northern  banks  of  the  Thames,  and  of 
the  Earl  of  Lincoln's  palace  in  New  Street,  saw  them  also 
make  a  third  grand  settlement.  The  manor  of  Porte- 
poole,  or  Purpoole,  became  the  property  of  the  Grays  of 
Wilton,  in  the  twenty-second  year  of  Edward  I. ;  and  on 
its  green  fields,  lying  north  of  Holborn,  a  society  of  law- 
yers established  a  college  which  still  retains  the  name  of 
the  ancient  proprietors  of  the  soil.    Concerning  the  exact 


For  to  be  wise  in  buying  of  vitaile; 
For  whether  he  pay'd  or  took  by  taile, 
Algate  he  wayted  so  in  his  ashate, 
That  he  was  aye  before  in  good  estate. 
Now  is  not  that  of  God  a  full  faire  grace, 
That  such  a  leude  man's  wit  shall  pace 
The  wisdome  of  an  heape  of  learned  men  ? 
Of  masters  had  he  more  than  thrice  ten, 
That  were  of  law  expert  and  curious, 
Of  which  there  was  a  dozen  in  that  house, 
Worthy  to  been  stewards  of  rent  and  land 
Of  any  lord  that  is  in  England; 
To  maken  him  live  by  his  proper  good 
In  honour  debtlcss,  but  if  he  were  wood; 
Or  live  as  scarcely  as  him  list  desire. 
And  able  to  helpen  all  a  shire, 
In  any  case  that  might  have  fallen  or  hap. 
Vnd  yet  the  manciple  set  all  her  capp." 


262  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

date  of  its  institution,  the  uncertainty  is  even  greater  than 
that  which  obscures  the  foundation  of  the  Temple  and 
Lincoln's  Inn;  but  antiquaries  have  agreed  to  assign  the 
creation  of  Gray's  Inn,  as  an  hospicium  for  the  entertain- 
ment of  lawyers,  to  the  time  of  Edward  IH. 

The  date  at  which  the  Temple  lawyers  split  up  into 
two  separate  societies,  is  also  unknown;  but  assigning 
the  division  to  some  period  posterior  to  Wat  Tyler's  in- 
surrection, Dugdale  says,  "But,  notwithstanding,  this 
spoil  by  the  rebels,  those  students  so  increased  here, 
that  at  length  they  divided  themselves  into  two  bodies; 
the  one  commonly  known  by  the  Society  of  the  Inner 
Temple,  and  the  other  of  the  Middle  Temple,  holding 
this  mansion  as  tenants."  But  as  both  societies  had  a 
common  origin  in  the  migration  of  lawyers  from  Thavies 
Inn,  Holborn,  in  the  time  of  Edward  III.,  it  is  itsual  to 
speak  of  the  two  Temples  as  instituted  in  that  reign, 
and  to  regard  all  four  Inns  of  Court  as  the  work  of  the 
fourteenth  century. 

The  Inns  of  Chancery  for  manny  generations  main- 
tained towards  the  Inns  of  Court  a  position  similar  to 
that  which  Eton  School  maintains  towards  King's  at 
Cambridge,  or  that  which  Winchester  School  holds  to 
New  College  at  Oxford.  They  were  seminaries  in  which 
lads  underwent  preparation  for  the  superior  discipline 
and  greater  freedom  of  the  four  coDeges.  Each  Inn  of 
Court  had  its  own  Inns  of  Chancery,  yearly  receiving 
from  them  the  pupils  who  had  qualified  themselves  for 
promotion  to  the  status  of  Inns-of-Court  men.  In  course 
of  time,  students  after  receiving  the  preliminary  education 
in  an  Inn  of  Chancery  where  permitted  to  enter  an  Inn 
of  Court  on  which  their  Inn  of  Chancery  was  not  de- 
pendent; but  at  every  Inn  of  Court  higher'  admission 
fees  were,  charged  to  students  coming  from  Inns  of  Chan- 
cery over  which  it  had  no  control,  than  to  students  who 


Legal  Education.  263 

came  from  its  own  primary  schools.  If  the  reader  bears 
in  mind  the  difference  in  respect  to  age,  learning,  and 
privileges  between  our  modern  public  schoolboys  and 
university  ungraduates,  he  will  realize  with  sufficient 
nearness  to  truth  the  differences  which  existed  between 
the  Inns  of  Chancery  students  and  the  Inns  of  Court 
students  in  the  fifteenth  century ;  and  in  the  students, 
utter-barristers,  and  benchers  of  the  Inns  of  Court  at  the 
same  period  he  may  see  three  distinct  orders  of  academic 
persons  closely  resembling  the  undergraduates,  bachelors 
of  arts,  and  masters  of  arts  in  our  universities. 

In  the  '  De  Laudibus  Legum  Angliae,'*  written  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  fifteenth  century,  Sir  John  Fortescue 
says — "  But  to  the  intent,  most  excellent  Prince,  yee  may 
conceive  a  forme  and  an  image  of  this  study,  as  I  am 
able,  I  wil  describe  it  unto  you.  For  there  be  in  it  ten 
lesser  houses  or  innes,  and  sometimes  moe,  which  are 
called  Innes  of  the  Chauncerye.  And  to  every  one  of 
them  belongeth  an  hundred  students  at  least,  and  to  some 
of  them  a  much  greater  number,  though  they  be  not  ever 
all  together  in  the  same." 

In  Charles  EC's  time  there  were  eight  Inns  of  Chancery; 
and  of  them  three  were  subsidiary  to  the  Inner  Temple — 
viz.,  Clifford's  Inn,  Clement's  Inn,  and  Lyon's  Inn.  Clif- 
ford's Inn  (originally  the  town  residence  of  the  Barons 
Clifford)  was  first  inhabited  by  law-students  in  the 
eighteenth  year  of  Edward  HL  Clement's  Inn  (taking 
its  name  from  the  adjacent  St.  Clement's  Well)  was 
certainly  inhabited  by  law-students  as  early  as  the  nine- 
teenth year  of  Edward  IV.  Lyon's  Inn  was  an  Inn  of 
Chancery  in  the  time  of  Henry  V. 

One  alone  (New  Inn)  was  attached  to  the  Middle  Tem- 

*  The  '  De  Laudibus  '  was  written  in  Latin ;  but  for  the  convenience  of  readers 
not  familiar  with  that  classic  tongue,  the  quotations  from  the  treatise  are  given 
■from  Robert  Mulcaater'a  English  version. 


264  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

pie.  In  the  previous  century,  the  Middle  Temple  had 
possessed  another  Inn  of  Chancery  called  Strand  Inn  ; 
but  in  the  third  year  of  Edward  "VI.  this  nursery 
was  pulled  down  by  the  Duke  of  Somerset,  who  required 
the  ground  on  which  it  stood  for  the  site  of  Somerset 
House. 

Lincoln's  Inn  had  for  dependent  schools  Furnival's  Inn 
and  Thavies  Inn — the  latter  of  which  hostels  was  in- 
habited by  law-students  in  Edward  HL's  time.  Of  Fur- 
nival's Inn  (originally  Lord  Furnival's  town  mansion, 
and  converted  into  a  law-school  in  Edward  VI.'s  reign) 
Dugdale  says:  "  After  which  time  the  Principall  and  Fel- 
lows of  this  Inne  have  paid  to  the  society  of  Lincoln's  Inne 
the  rent  of  iii1  vi8  iiid  as  an  yearly  rent  for  the  same,  as 
may  appear  by  the  accompts  of  that  house;  and  by  spe- 
cial! order  there  made,  have  had  these  following  privi- 
ledges:  first  (viz.  10  Eliz.),  that  the  utter-barristers  of 
Furnivall's  Inne,  of  a  yeares  continuance,  and  so  certified 
and  allowed  by  the  Benchers  of  Lincoln's  Inne,  shall  pay 
no  more  than  four  marks  apiece  for  their  admittance  into 
that  society.  Next  (viz.  in  Eliz. )  that  every  fellow  of  this 
inne,  who  hath  been  allowed  an  utter-barrister  here, 
and  that  hath  mooted  here  two  vacations  at  the  Utter 
Bar,  shall  pay  no  more  for  their  admission  into  the  Socie- 
ty of  Lincoln's  Inne,  than  xiii8  iiiid,  though  all  utter-bar- 
risters of  any  other  Inne  of  Chancery  (excepting  Thavyes 
Inne)  should  pay  xx8,  and  that  every  inner-barrister  of 
this  house,  who  hath  mooted  here  one  vacation  at  the  In- 
ner Bar,  should  pay  for  his  admission  into  this  House  but 
xx8,  those  of  other  houses  (excepting  Thavyes  Inne)  pay- 
ing xxvi8  viiid." 

The  subordinate  seminaries  of  Gray's  Inn,  in  Dugdale's 
time,  were  Staple  Inn  and  Barnard's  Inn.  Originally  the 
Exchange  of  the  London  woolen  merchants,  Staple  Inn 
was  a  law-school  as  early  as  Henry  V.'s  time.     It  is  pro- 


Legal  Education.  265 

bable  that  Bernard's  Inn  became  an  academy  for  law- 
students  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VI. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 


LAWYERS    AND    GENTLEMEN. 


f~T^  HUS  planted  in  the  fourteenth  century  beyond  the 
JL  confines  of  the  city,  and  within  easy  access  of  West- 
minster Hall,  the  Inns  of  Court  and  Chancery  formed  an 
university,  which  soon  became  almost  as  powerful  and 
famous  as  either  Oxford  or  Cambridge.  For  generations 
they  were  spoken  of  collectively  as  the  law -university, 
and  though  they  were  voluntary  societies — in  their  nature 
akin  to  the  club-houses  of  modern  London — they  adopted 
common  rules  of  discipline,  and  an  uniform  system  of 
instruction.  Students  flocked  to  them  in  abundance  ; 
and  whereas  the  students  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge  were 
drawn  from  the  plebeian  ranks  of  society,  the  scholars  of 
the  law-university  were  almost  invariably  the  sons  of 
wealthy  men  and  had  usually  sprung  from  gentle  families. 
To  be  a  law-student  was  to  be  a  stripling  of  quality. 
The  law  university  enjoyed  the  same  patrician  prestige 
and  eclat  that  now  belong  to  the  more  aristocratic  houses 
of  the  old  universities. 

Noblemen  sent  their  sons  to  it  in  order  that  they 
might  acquire  the  style  and  learning  and  accomplishments 
of  polite  society.  A  proportion  of  the  students  were 
encouraged  to  devote  themselves  to  the  study  of  the  law 
and  to  attend  sedulously  the  sittings  of  Judges  in  West- 
minster Hall;  but  the  majority  of  well-descended  boys 
who  inhabited  the  Inns  of  Chancery  were  heirs  to  good 
12 


266  A  Book  about  Laivyers. 

estates,  and  were  trained  to  become  their  wealth  rather 
than  to  increase  it — to  perfect  themselves  in  graceful  arts, 
rather  than  to  qualify  themselves  to  hold  briefs.  The 
same  was  the  case  in  the  Inns  of  Court,  which  were  so  de- 
signated— not  because  they  prepared  young  men  to  rise 
in  courts  of  law,  but  because  they  taught  them  to  shine 
in  the  palaces  of  kings.  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that 
the  Inns  of  Court  contain  at  the  present  time  a  larger 
proportion  of  idle  members,  who  have  no  intention  to 
practise  at  the  bar,  than  they  contained  under  the  Plan- 
tagenets  and  Tudors.  On  the  contrary,  in  the  fourteenth 
and  fifteenth  centuries,  the  number  of  Templars  who 
merely  played  at  being  lawyers,  or  were  lawyers  only  in 
name,  was  actually  as  well  as  relatively  greater  than  the 
merely  nominal  lawyers  of  the  Temple  at  the  present  time. 
For  several  generations,  and  for  two  centuries  after  Sir 
John  Fortescue  wrote  the  'De  Laudibus,'  the  Inns-of- 
Court  man  was  more  busied  in  learning  to  sing  than  in 
learning  to  argue  a  law  cause,  more  desirous  to  fence 
with  a  sword  than  to  fence  with  logic. 

"  Notwithstanding,"  runs  Mulcaster's  translation  of  the 
'De  Laudibus,'*  "the  same  lawes  are  taught  and  learned, 
in  a  certaine  place  of  publique  or  common  studie,  more 
convenient  and  apt  for  attayninge  to  the  knowledge  of 
them,  than  any  other  university.  For  theyr  place  of 
studie  is  situate  nigh  to  the  Kinges  Courts,  where  the 
same  lawes  are  pleaded  and  argued,  and  judgements  by 
the  same  given  by  judges,  men  of  gravitie,  auncient  in 
yeares,  perfit  and  graduate  in  the  same  lawes.  Wherefore, 
euerie  day  in  court,  the  students  in  those  lawes  resorte 
by  great  numbers  into  those  courts  wherein  the  same 
lawes  are  read  and  taught,  as  it  were  in  common  schooles. 


*  This  charming  book  was  written  doling  the  author's  exile,  which  began  in 
1463. 


Legal  Education.  267 

This  place  of  studie  is  far  betweene  the  place  of  the  said 
courts  and  the  cittie  of  London,  which  of  all  thinges 
necessarie  is  the  plentifullest  of  all  cities  and  townes  of 
the  realme.  So  that  the  said  place  of  studie  is  not  situ- 
ate within  the  cittie,  where  the  confluence  of  people 
might  disturb  the  quietnes  of  the  studentes,  but  some- 
what severall  in  the  suburbes  of  the  same  cittie,  and 
nigher  to  the  saide  courts,  that  the  studentes  may  daye- 
lye  at  their  pleasure  have  accesse  and  recourse  thither 
without  weariness." 

Setting  forth  the  condition  and  pursuits  of  law-students 
in  his  day,  Sir  John  Fortesque  continues  ;  "  For  in  these 
greater  inns,  there  can  no  student  bee  mayntayned  for 
lesse  expenses  by  the  yeare  than  twentye  markes.  And 
if  hee  have  a  servaunt  to  wait  uppon  him,  as  most  of 
them  have,  then  so  much  the  greater  will  his  charges  bee. 
Nowe,  by  reason  of  this  charge,  the  children  onely  of 
noblemenne  doo  studye  the  lawes  in  those  innes.  For 
the  poore  and  common  sorte  of  the  people  are  not  able 
to  bear  so  great  charges  for  the  exhibytion  of  theyr  chyl- 
dren.  And  Marchaunt  menne  can  seldome  finde  in  theyr 
heartes  to  hynder  theyr  merchaundise  with  so  greate 
yearly  expenses.  And  it  thus  falleth  out  that  there  is 
scant  anye  man  founde  within  the  realme  skilfull  and 
cunning  in  the  lawes,  except  he  be  a  gentleman  borne, 
and  come  of  noble  stocke.  Wherefore  they  more  than 
any  other  kinde  of  men  have  a  speciall  regarde  to  their 
nobility,  and  to  the  preservation  of  their  honor  and  fame. 
And  to  speake  upryghtlye,  there  is  in  these  greater  innes, 
yea,  and  in  the  lesser  too,  beside  the  studie  of  the  lawes, 
as  it  were  an  university  or  schoole  of  all  commendable 
qualities  requisite  for  noble  men.  There  they  learn  to 
sing,  and  to  exercise  themselves  in  all  kinde  of  harmonye. 
There  also  they  practice  daunsing,  and  other  noblemen's 
pastimes,  as  they  use  to  do,  which  are  brought  up  in  the 


268  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

king's  house.  On  the  working  dayes,  the  most  of  them 
apply  themselves  to  the  studye  of  the  lawe,  and  on  the 
holye  dayes  to  the  studye  of  holye  Scripture  ;*  and  out 
of  the  tyme  of  divine  service,  to  the  reading  of  Chroni- 
cles. For  there  indeede  are  vertues  studied,  and  vices 
exiled.  So  that,  for  the  endowment  of  vertue,  and  aban- 
doning of  vice,  Knights  and  Barrons,  with  other  states 
and  noblemen  of  the  real  me,  place  their  children  in  those 
innes,  though  they  desire  not  to  have  them  learned  in 
the  lawes,  nor  to  lieue  by  the  practice  thereof,  but  onely 
uppon  their  father's  allowance.  Scant  at  anye  tyme  is 
there  heard  among  them  any  sedition,  chyding,  or  grudg- 
ing, and  yet  the  offenders  are  punished  with  none  other 
payne,  but  onely  to  bee  amooved  from  the  compayne  of 
their  fellowshippe.  Which  punishment  they  doo  more 
feare  than  other  criminall  offendours  doo  feare  imprison- 
ment and  yrons  :  For  hee  that  is  once  expelled  from  anye 
of  those  fellowshippes  is  never  received  to  bee  a  felowe 
in  any  of  the  other  fellowshippes.  And  so  by  this  means 
there  is  continuall  peace ;  and  their  demeanor  is  lyke 
the  behaviour  of  such  as  are  coupled  together  in  perfect 
amytie." 

Any  person  familiar  with  the  Inns  of  Court  at  the 
present  time  will  see  how  closely  the  law-colleges  of 
Victoria's  London  resemble  in  many  important  particu- 
lars the  law-colleges  of  Fortescue's  period.  After  the 
fashion  of  four  centuries  since  young  men  are  still  in- 
duced to  enter  them  for  the  sake  of  honorable 
companionship,  good  society,  and  social  prestige,  rather 
than  for  the  sake  of  legal  education.  After  the  remarks 
already   made   with    regard    to    musical    lawyers  in   a 


*  This  passage  ia  one  of  several  passages  in  Pre-refonnation  English  literature 
which  certify  that  the  Bible  was  much  more  widely  and  carefully  read  by  lettered 
and  studious  laymen,  in  times  prior  to  the  rupture  between  England  and  Rome* 
than  many  persons  are  aware,  and  some  violent  writers  like  to  acknowledge. 


Legal  Education.  269 

previous  section  of  this  work,  it  is  needless  to  say  that 
Inns  of  Court  men  are  not  remarkable  for  their  application 
to  vocal  harmony;  but  the  younger  members  are  still  re- 
markable for  the  zeal  with  which  they  endeavor  to  master 
the  accomplishments  which  distinguish  men  of  fashion  and 
tone.  If  the  nominal  (sometimes  they  are  called  '  orna- 
mental ')  barristers  of  the  fifteenth  century  liked  to  read 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  the  young  lawyers  of  the  nineteenth 
century  are  no  less  disposed  to  read  their  Bibles  critically, 
and  argue  as  to  the  merits  of  Bishop  Colenso  and  his 
opponents.  Moreover,  the  discipline  described  by  For- 
tescue  is  still  found  sufficient  to  maintain  order  in  the 
inns. 

Writing  more  than  a  century  after  Fortescue,  Sir 
John  Feme,  in  his  'Blazon  of  Gtntrie,  the  Glory  of 
Generosity,  and  the  Lacy's  Nobility,'  observes:  "Noble- 
ness of  blood,  joyned  with  virtue,  compteth  the  person 
as  most  meet  to  the  enterprize  of  any  public  service; 
and  for  that  cause  it  was  not  for  nought  that  our  antient 
governors  in  this  land,  did  with  a  special  foresight  and 
wisdom  provide,  that  none  should  be  admitted  into  the 
Houses  of  Court,  being  seminaries  sending  forth  men 
apt  to  the  government  of  justice,  except  he  were  a 
gentleman  of  blood.  And  that  this  may  seem  a  truth,  I 
myself  have  seen  a  kalendar  of  all  those  which  were 
together  in  the  society  of  one  of  the  same  houses,  about 
the  last  year  of  King  Henry  the  Fifth,  with  the  armes 
of  their  House  and  family  marshalled  by  their  names; 
and  I  assure  you,  the  self  same  monument  doth  both 
approve  them  all  to  be  gentlemen  of  perfect  descents 
and  also  the  number  of  them  much  less  than  now  it 
is,  being  at  that  time  in  one  house  scarcely  three  score."* 

*  Pathetically  deploring  the  change  wrought  by  time,  Feme  also  observes  of  the 
Inns  of  Court,—"  Pity  to  see  the  same  places,  through  the  malignity  of  the  times, 
and  the  negligence  of  those  which  should  have  had  care  to  the  same,  been  altered 
quite  from  their  first  institution." 


270  A  Book  about  Lawyers 

This  passage  from  an  author  who  delighted  to  magnify 
the  advantages  of  generous  descent,  has  contributed  to 
the  very  general  and  erroneous  impression  that  until 
comparatively  recent  times  the  members  of  the  English 
bar  were  necessarily  drawn  from  the  highest  ranks  of 
society;  and  several  excellent  writers  on  the  antiquities 
of  the  law  have  laid  aside  their  customary  caution  and 
strengthened   Feme's  words  with  inaccurate  comment. 

Thus  Pearce  says  of  the  author  of  the  '  Glory  of 
Generositie' — "He  was  one  of  the  advocates  for  ex- 
cluding from  the  Inns  of  Court  all  who  were  not  'a 
gentleman  by  blood,'  according  to  the  ancient  rule  men- 
tioned by  Fortescue,  which  seems  to  have  been  disregarded 
in  Elizabeth's  time."  Fortescue  nowhere  mentions  any 
such  rule,  but  attributes  the  aristocratic  character  of  the 
law-colleges  to  the  nigh  cost  of  membership.  Far  from 
implying  that  men  of  mean  extraction  were  excluded  by 
an  express  prohibition,  his  words  justify  the  inference 
that  no  such  rule  existed  in  his  time. 

Though  Inns-of-Court  men  were  for  many  generations 
gentlemen  by  birth  almost  without  a  single  exception, 
it  yet  remains  to  be  proved  that  plebeian  birth  at  any 
period  disqualified  persons  for  admission  to  the  law- 
colleges.  If  such  a  restriction  ever  existed  it  had  dis- 
appeared before  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century — a 
period  not  favorable  to  the  views  of  those  who  were 
most  anxious  to  remove  the  barriers  placed  by  feudal 
society  between  the  gentle  and  the  vulgar.  Sir  John 
More  (the  father  of  the  famous  Sir  Thomas)  was  a 
Judge  in  the  King's  Bench,  although  his  parentage  was 
obscure;  and  it  is  worthy  of  notice  that  he  was  a  suc- 
cessful lawyer  of  Fortescue's  period.  Lord  Chancellor 
Audley  was  not  entitled  to  bear  arms  by  birth,  but  was 
merely  the  son  of  a  prosperous  yeoman.  The  lowliness 
of  his    extraction  cannot  have  been  any  serious  impedi- 


Legal  Education.  271 

ment  to  him,  for  before  the  end  of  his  thirty-sixth  year- 
he  was  a  sergeant.  In  the  following  century  the  inns 
received  a  steadily  increasing  number  of  students,  who 
either  lacked  generous  lineage  or  were  the  offspring  of 
shameful  love.  For  instance,  Chief  Justice  Wray's  birth 
was  scandalous;  and  if  Lord  Ellesmere  in  his  youth  re- 
flected with  pride  on  the  dignity  of  his  father,  Sir  Eichard 
Egerton,  he  had  reason  to  blush  for  his  mother.  Feme's 
lament  over  the  loss  of  heraldric  virtue  and  splendor, 
which  the  inns  had  sustained  in  his  time,  testifies  to 
the  presence  of  a  considerable  plebeian  element  amongst 
the  members  of  the  law-university.  But  that  which  was 
marked  in  the  sixteenth  was  far  more  apparent  in  the 
seventeenth  century.  Scroggs's  enemies  were  wrong  in 
stigmatizing  him  as  a  butcher's  son,  j!or  the  odious  chief 
justice  was  born  and  bred  a  gentleman,  and  Jeffreys  could 
boast  a  decent  extraction;  but  there  is  abundance  of 
evidence  that  throughout  the  reigns  of  the  Stuarts  the 
inns  swarmed  with  low-born  adventurers.  The  career 
of  Chief  Justice  Saunders,  who,  beginning  as  a  "poor 
beggar  boy,"  of  unknown  parentage,  raised  himself  to  the 
Chiefship  of  the  King's  Bench,  shows  how  low  an  origin  a 
judge  might  have  in  the  seventeenth  century.  To  men- 
tion the  names  of  such  men  as  Parker,  King,  Torke, 
Ryder,  and  the  Scotts,  without  placing  beside  them  the 
names  of  such  men  as  Henley,  Harcourt,  Bathurst,  Talbot, 
Murray,  and  Erskine,  "w  ould  tend  to  create  an  erroneous 
impression  that  in  the  eighteenth  century  the  bar  ceased 
to  comprise  amongst  its  industrious  members  a  large 
aristocratic  element. 

The  number  of  barristers,  however,  who  in  that  period 
brought  themselves  by  talent  and  honorable  perseverance 
into  the  foremost  rank  of  the  legal  profession  in  spite  of 
humble  birth,  unquestionably  shows  that  ambitious  men 
from  the   obscure  middle  classes  were  more  frequently 


272  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

than  in  any  previous  century  .found  pushing  their  for- 
tunes in  Westminster  Hall.  Lord  Macclesfield  was  the 
son  of  an  attorney  whose  parents  were  of  lowly  origin, 
and  whose  worldly  means  were  even  lower  than  their 
ancestral  condition.  Lord  Chancellor  King's  father  was 
a  grocer  and  Salter  who  carried  on  a  retail  business  at 
Exeter;  and  in  his  youth  the  Chancellor  himself  had 
acted  as  his  father's  apprentice — standing  behind  the 
counter  and  wearing  the  apron  and  sleeves  of  a  grocer's 
servitor.  Philip  Yorke  was  the  son  of  a  country  attor- 
ney who  could  boast  neither  wealth  nor  gentle  descent. 
Chief  Justice  Ryder  was  the  son  of  a  mercer  whose 
shop  stood  in  West  Smithfield,  and  grandson  of  a  dis- 
senting minister,  who,  though  he  bore  the  name,  is  not 
known  to  have  inherited  the  blood  of  the  Yorkshire 
Ryders.  Sir  William  Blackstone  was  the  fourth  son  of 
a  silkman  and  citizen  of  London.  Lords  Stowell  and 
Eldon  were  the  children  of  a  provincial  tradesman.  The 
learned  and  good  Sir  Samuel  Romilly's  father  was  Peter 
Romilly,  jeweller,  of  Frith  Street,  Soho.  Such  were  the 
origins  of  some  of  the  men  who  won  the  prizes  of  the 
law  in  comparatively  recent  times.  The  present  century 
has  produced  an  even  greater  number  of  barristers  who 
have  achieved  eminence,  and  are  able  to  say  with  honest 
pride  that  they  are  the  first  gentlemen  mentioned  in  their 
pedigrees;  and  so  thoroughly  has  the  bar  become  an 
open  profession,  accessible  to  all  persons*  who  have  the 


*  It  is  not  unusual  now-a-days  to  see  on  the  screened  list  of  students  about  to  be 
called  to  the  bar  the  names  of  gentlemen  who  have  caused  themselves  to  be  des- 
cribed in  the  quasi-public  lists  as  the  sons  of  tradesmen.  Some  few  years  since  a 
gentleman  who  has  already  made  his  name  known  amongst  juniors,  was  thus 
'  screened  '  in  the  four  halls  as  the  son  of  a  petty  tradesman  in  an  obscnre  quar- 
ter of  London;  and  assuming  that  his  conduct  was  due  to  self-respect  and  affec- 
tionate regard  for  his  parent,  it  seemed  to  most  observers  that  the  young  lawyer, 
in  thus  frankly  stating  his  lowly  origin,  acted  with  spirit  and  dignity.  It  may  be 
that  years  hence  this  highly-accomplished  gentleman  will,  Uke  Lord  Tenterden 
and  Lord  St.  Leonards  (both  of  whom  were  the  sons  of  honest  but  humble 
tradesmen),  see  his  name  placed  upon  the  roll  of  England's  hereditary  noblesse. 


Legal  Education.  273 

means  of  gentlemen,  that  no  barrister  at  the  present 
time  would  have  the  bad  taste  or  foolish  hardihood  to 
express  openly  his  regret  that  the  members  of  a  liberal 
profession  should  no  longer  pay  a  hurtful  attention  to 
illiberal  distinctions. 

According  to  Fortescue,  the  law-students  belonging  at 
the  same  time  to  the  Inns  of  Court  and  Chancery  num- 
bered at  least  one  thousand  eight  hundred  in  the  fifteenth 
century;  and  it  may  be  fairly  inferred  from  his  words 
that  their  number  considerably  exceeded  two  thousand. 
To  each  of  the  ten  Inns  of  Chancery  the  author  of  the 
'  De  Laudibus '  assigns  "  an  hundred  students  at  the  least, 
and  to  some  of  them  a  much  greater  number;"  and  he 
says  that  the  least  populous  of  the  four  Inns  of  Court 
contained  "  two  hundred  students  or  thereabouts."  At 
the  present  time  the  number  of  barristers — together  with 
Fellows  of  the  College  of  Advocates,  and  certificated 
special  pleaders  and  conveyancers  not  at  the  bar — is 
shown  by  the  Law  List  for  1866  to  be  somewhat  more 
than  4800.*  Even  when  it  is  borne  in  mind  how  much 
the  legal  business  of  the  whole  nation  has  necessarily  in- 
creased with  the  growth  of  our  commercial  prosperity 
— it  being  at  the  same  time  remembered,  upon  the 
other  hand,  how  many  times  the  population  of  the 
country  has  doubled  itself  since  the  wars  of  the  Roses 
— few  persons  will  be  of  opinion  that  the  legal  profes- 
sion, either  by  the  number  of  its  practitioners  or  its  com- 
mand of  employment,  is  a  more  conspicuous  and  prosper- 
ous power  at  the  present  time  than  it  was  in  the  fifteenth 
century. 


*  Of  this  number  about  2500  reside  in  or  uear  London  and  maintain  some  appa- 
rent connexion  with  the  Inns  of  Court.  Of  the  remainder,  some  reside  in  Scot- 
land, some  in  Ireland,  some  in  the  English  provinces,  some  in  the  colonies ;  whilst 
some  of  them,  although  their  names  are  still  on  the  Law  List,  have  ceased  to  regard 
themselves  as  members  of  the  legal  profession. 


274  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

Feme  was  by  no  means  the  only  gentleman  of  Eliza- 
bethan London  to  deplore  the  rapid  increase  in  the  num- 
ber of  lawyers,  and  to  regret  the  growing  liberality  which 
encouraged — or  rather  the  national  prosperity  which  en- 
abled— men  of  inferior  parentage  to  adopt  the  law  as  a 
profession.     In  his  address  on  Mr.  Clerke's  elevation  to 
the  dignity  of  a  sergeant,  Lord  Chancellor  Hatton,  echoing 
the  common  complaint  concerning  the  degradation  of  the 
law  through  the  swarms  of  plebeian  students  and  prac- 
titioners, observed — "  Let  not  the  dignitie  of  the  lawe  be 
geven  to  men  unmeete.     And  I  do  exhorte  you  all  that 
are   heare  present  not  to  call  men  to  the  barre  or  the 
benches  that  are  so  unmeete.     I  finde  that  there  are  now 
more   at  the   barre  in  one  house  than  there  was  in  all 
the  Innes  of  Court  when  I  was  a  younge  man."     Not- 
withstanding the  Chancellor's  earnest  statement  of  his 
personal  recollection   of  the   state   of  things   when  he 
was  a  young  man,  there  is  reason  to  think  that  he  was 
quite  in  error  in  thinking  that  lawyers  had  increased  so 
greatly  in  number.     From  a  MS.  in  Lord  Burleigh's  col- 
lection,  it   appears  that  in   1586   the  number   of  law- 
students,  resident  during  term,  was  only  1703 — a  smaller 
number  than  that  which  Fortescue  computed  the  entire 
population  of  the  London  law-students,  at  a  time  when 
civil  war  had  cruelly   diminished  the  number  of  men 
likely  to  join   an   aristocratic  university.      Sir  Edward 
Coke  estimated  the  roll  of  Elizabethan  law-students  at 
one  thousand,  half  their  number  in  Fortescue's   time. 
Coke,  however,  confined  his  attention  in  this  matter  to  the 
Students  of  Inns  of  Court,  and  paid  no  attention  to  Inns 
of  Chancery.     Either  Hatton  greatly  exaggerated  the  in- 
crease  of  the  legal  working  profession;  or  in  previous 
times  the  proportion  of  law-students  who  never  became 
barristers  greatly  exceeded  those   who   were   ultimately 
called  to  the  bar. 


Legal  Education.  27 5 

Something  more  than  a  hundred  years  later,  the  old 
cry  against  the  low-born  adventurers,  who,  to  the  in- 
jury of  the  public  and  the  degradation  of  the  law,  were 
said  to  overwhelm  counsellors  and  solicitors  of  superior 
tone  and  pedigree,  was  still  frequently  heard  in  the 
coteries  of  disaj)pointed  candidates  for  employment  in 
Westminster  Hall,  and  on  the  lips  of  men  whose  hopes 
of  achieving  social  distinction  were  likely  to  be  frus- 
trated so  long  as  plebeian  learning  and  energy  were 
permitted  to  have  free  action.  In  his  '  History  of  Hert- 
fordshire '  (published  in  1700),  Sir  Henry  Chauncey,  Ser- 
geant-at-Law,  exclaims:  "But  now  these  mechanicks, 
ambitious  of  rule  and  government,  often  educate  their 
sons  in  these  seminaries  of  law,  whereby  they  overstock 
the  profession,  and  so  make  it  contemptible;  whilst  the 
gentry,  not  sensible  of  the  mischief  they  draw  upon 
themselves,  but  also  upon  the  nation,  prefer  them  in  their 
business  before  their  own  children,  whom  they  bereave 
of  their  employment,  formerly  designed  for  their  sup- 
port; qualifying  their  servants,  by  the  profit  of  this  pro- 
fession, to  purchase  their  estates,  and  by  this  means  make 
them  their  lords  and  masters,  whilst  they  lessen  the  trade 
of  the  kingdom,  and  cause  a  scarcity  of  husbandmen, 
workmen,  artificers,  and  servants  in  the  nation."    . 

That  the  Inns  of  Court  became  less  and  less  aristo- 
cratic throughout  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries 
there  is  no  reason  to  doubt;  but  it  may  be  questioned 
whether  it  was  so  overstocked  with  competent  working 
members,  as  poor  Sir  Henry  Chauncey  imagined  it.  Des- 
cribing the  state  of  the  inns  some  two  generations  later, 
Blackstone  computed  the  number  of  law-students  at  about 
a  thousand,  perhaps  slightly  more ;  and  he  observes  that 
in  his  time  the  merely  nominal  law-students  were  com- 
paratively few.  "  Wherefore,"  he  says,  "  few  gentlemen 
now  resort  to  the  Inns  of  Court,  but  such  for  whom  the 


276  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

knowledge  of  practice  is  absolutely  necessary;  such,  I 
mean,  as  are  intended  for  the  profession;  the  rest  of  our 
gentry,  (not  to  say  our  nobility  also)  having  usually  re- 
tired to  their  estates,  or  visited  foreign  kingdoms,  or 
entered  upon  public  life,  without  any  instruction  in  the 
laws  of  the  land,  and  indeed  with  hardly  any  opportunity 
of  gaining  instruction,  unless  it  can  be  afforded  to  them 
in  the  universities." 

The  folly  of  those  who  lamented  that  men  of  plebeian 
rank  were  allowed  to  adopt  the  legal  profession  as  a  means 
of  livelihood,  was  however  exceeded  by  the  folly  of  men 
of  another  sort,  who  endeavored  to  hide  the  humble  ex- 
tractions of  eminent  lawyers,  under  the  ingenious  false- 
hoods of  fictitious  pedigrees.  In  the  last  century,  no 
sooner  had  a  lawyer  of  humble  birth  risen  to  distinction, 
than  he  was  pestered  by  fabricators  of  false  genealogies, 
who  implored  him  to  accept  their  silly  romances  about  his 
ancestry.  In  most  cases,  these  ridiculous  applicants  hoped 
to  receive  money  for  their  dishonest  representations;  but 
not  seldom  it  happened  that  they  were  actuated  by  a 
sincere  desire  to  protect  the  heraldic  honor  of  the  law 
from  the  aspersions  of  those  who  maintained  that  a  man 
might  fight  his  way  to  the  woolsack,  although  his  father 
had  been  a  tender  of  swine.  Sometimes  these  imagina- 
tive chroniclers,  not  content  with  fabricating  a  genealo- 
gical chart  for  a  parvenu  Lord  Chancellor,  insisted  that 
he  should  permit  them  to  write  their  lives  in  such  a 
fashion,  that  their  earlier  experiences  should  seem  to  be 
in  harmony  with  their  late?  fortunes.  Lord  Macclesfield 
(the  son  of  a  poor  and  ill-descended  country  attorney), 
was  traced  by  officious  adulators  to  Reginald  Le  Parker, 
who  accompanied  Edward  I.,  while  Prince  of  Wales,  to 
the  Holy  Land.  In  like  manner  a  manufacturer  of  geneal- 
ogies traced  Lord  Eldon  to  Sir  Michael  Scott  of  Bal- 
wearie.    When  one  of  this  servile  school  of  worshippers 


Legal  Education.  277 

approached  Lord  Thurlow  with  an  assurance  that  he 
was  of  kin  with  Cromwell's  secretary  Thurloe,  the  Chan- 
cellor, with  bluff  honesty,  responded,  "  Sir,  as  Mr.  Sec- 
retary Thurloe  was,  like  myself,  a  Suffolk  man,  you  have 
an  excuse  for  your  mistake.  In  the  seventeenth  century 
two  Thurlows,  who  were  in  no  way  related  to  each  other, 
flourished  in  Suffolk.  One  was  Cromwell's  secretary 
Thurloe,  the  other  was  Thurlow,  the  Suffolk  carrier.  I 
am  descended  from  the  carrier."  Notwithstanding  Lord 
Thurlow's  frequent  and  consistent  disavowals  of  preten- 
sion to  any  heraldic  pedigree,  his  collateral  descendants 
are  credited  in  the  '  Peerages '  with  a  descent  from  an 
ancient  family. 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

LAW-FRENCH    AND    LAW-LATIN. 


NO  circumstances  of  the  Norman  Conquest  more  for- 
cibly illustrate  the  humiliation  of  the  conquered 
people,  than  the  measures  by  which  the  invaders  imposed 
their  language  on  the  public  courts  of  the  country,  and 
endeavored  to  make  it  permanently  usurp  the  place  of 
the  mother-tongue  of  the  despised  multitude;  and  no 
fact  more  signallv  displays  our  conservative  temper  than 
the  general  reluctance  of  English  society  to  relinquish 
the  use  of  the  French  words  and  phrases  which  still  tinc- 
ture the  language  of  parliament,  and  the  procedures  of 
"Westminster  Hall,  recalling  to  our  minds  the  insolent 
domination  of  a  few  powerful  families  who  occupied  our 
country  by  force,  and  ruled  our  forefathers  with  vigorous 
injustice. 

Frenchmen  by  birth,  education,  sympathy,  William's 


278  A  Book  about  Lawyers 

barons  did  their  utmost  to  make  England  a  new  France : 
and  for  several  generations  the  descendants  of  the  success- 
ful invaders  were  no  less  eager  to  abolish  every'  usage 
which  could  remind  the  vanquished  race  of  their  lost 
supremacy.  French  became  the  language  of  parliament 
and  the  council-chamber.  It  was  spoken  by  the  judges 
who  dispensed  justice  in  the  name  of  a  French  king,  and 
by  the  lawyers  who  followed  the  royal  court  in  the  train 
of  the  French-speaking  judges.  In  the  hunting-field 
and  the  lists  no  gentleman  entitled  to  bear  coat-armour 
deigned  to  utter  a  word  of  English :  it  was  the  same  in 
Fives'  Court  and  at  the  gambling-table.  Schoolmasters 
were  ordered  to  teach  their  pupils  to  construe  from  Latin 
into  French,  instead  of  into  English;  and  young  men  of 
Anglo-Saxon  extraction,  bent  on  rising  in  the  world  by 
native  talent  and  Norman  patronage,  labored  to  acquire 
the  language  of  the  ruling  class  and  forget  the  accents 
of  their  ancestors.  The  language  and  usages  of  modern 
England  abound  with  traces  of  the  French  of  this  period. 
To  every  act  that  obtained  the  royal  assent  during  last 
session  of  parliament,  the  queen  said  "  La  reyne  le  veult," 
Every  bill  which  is  sent  up  from  the  Commons  to  the 
Lords,  an  officer  of  the  lower  house  endorses  with  "  Soit 
baile  aux  Seigneurs;"  and  no  bill  is  ever  sent  down  from 
the  Lords  to  the  Commons  until  a  corresponding  officer  of 
the  upper  house  has  written  on  its  back,  "  Soit  baile  aux 
Communes." 

In  like  manner  our  parochial  usages,  local  sports,  and 
domestic  games  continually  remind  us  of  the  obstinate 
tenacity  with  which  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  has  preserved, 
and  still  preserves,  the  vestiges  of  its  ancient  subjection 
to  a  foreign  yoke.  The  crier  of  a  country  town,  in  any 
of  England's  fertile  provinces,  never  proclaims  the  loss  of 
a  yeoman's  sporting-dog,  the  auction  of  a  bankrupt 
dealer's  stock-in-trade,  or  the  impounding  of  a  strayed 


Legal  Education.  279 

cow,  until  he  has  commanded,  in  Norman-French,  the 
attention  of  the  sleepy  rustics.  The  language  of  the 
stable  and  the  kennel  is  rich  in  traces  of  Norman  influ- 
ence ;  and  in  backgammon,  as  played  by  orthodox  players, 
we  have  a  suggestive  memorial  of  those  Norman  nobles* 
of  whom  Fortescue,  in  the  '  De  Laudibus '  observes : 
"  Neither  had  they  delyght  to  hunt,  and  to  exercise  other 
sportes  and  pastimes,  as  dyce-play  and  the  hand-ball,  but 
in  their  own  proper  tongue." 

In  behalf  of  the  Norman  noblesse  it  should  be  borne  in 
mind  that  their  policy  in  this  matter  was  less  intentionally 
vexatious  and  insolertt  than  it  has  appeared  to  superficial 
observers.  In  the  great  majority  of  causes  the  suitors 
were  Frenchmen ;  and  it  was  just  as  reasonable  that  they 
should  like  to  understand  the  arguments  of  their  counsel 
and  judges,  as  it  is  reasonable  for  suitors  in  the  present 
day  to  require  the  proceedings  in  Westminster  Hall  -to  be 
clothed  in  the  language  most  familiar  to  the  majority  of 
persons  seeking  justice  in  its  courts.  If  the  use  of  French 
pleadings  was  hard  on  the  one  Anglo-Saxon  suitor  who 
demanded  justice  in  Henry  I.'s  time,  the  use  of  English 
pleadings  would  have  been  equally  annoying  to  the  nine 
French  gentlemen  who  appeared  for  the  same  purpose  in 
the  king's  court.  It  was  greatly  to  be  desired  that  the 
two  races  should  have  one  common  language;  and  com- 
mon sense  ordained  that  the  tongue  of  the  one  or  the 
other  race  should  be  adopted  as  the  national  language. 
"Which  side  therefore  was  to  be  at  the  pains  to  learn  a 
new  tongue  ?  Should  the  conquerers  labor  to  acquire 
Anglo-Saxon?  or  should  the  conquered  be  required  to 
learn  French  ?  In  these  days  the  cultivated  Englishmen 
who  hold  India  by  military  force,  even  as  the  Norman 
invaders  held  England,  by  the  right  of  might,  settle  a 
similar  question  by  taking  upon  themselves  the  trouble 
of  learning  as  much  of  the  Asiatic  dialects  as  is  necessary 


280  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

for  purposes  of  business.  But  the  Norman  barons  were 
not  cultivated;  and  for  many  generations  ignorance  was 
with  them  an  affair  of  pride  no  less  than  of  constitutional 
inclination. 

Soon  ambitious  Englishmen  acquired  the  new  language, 
in  order  to  use  it  as  an  instrument  for  personal  advance- 
ment. The  Saxon  stripling  who  could  keep  accounts  in 
Norman  fashion,  and  speak  French  as  fluently  as  his 
mother  tongue,  might  hope  to  sell  his  knowledge  in  a 
good  market.  As  the  steward  of  a  Norman  baron  he 
might  negotiate  between  my  lord  and  my  lord's  tenants, 
letting  my  lord  know  as  much  of  his  tenant's  wishes,  and 
revealing  to  the  tenants  as  much  of  their  lord's  intentions 
as.  suited  his  purpose.  Uniting  in  his  own  person  the 
powers  of  interpreter,  arbitrator,  and  steward,  he  possessed 
enviable  opportunities  and  facilities  for  acquiring  wealth. 
Not  seldom,  when  he  had  grown  rich,  or  whilst  his 
fortunes  were  in  the  ascendant,  he  assumed  a  French 
name  as  well  as  a  French  accent;  and  having  persuaded 
himself  and  his  younger  neighbors  that  he  was  a 
Frenchman,  he  in  some  cases  bequeathed  to  his  children 
an  ample  estate  and  a  Norman  pedigree.  In  certain  causes 
in  the  law  courts  the  agent  (by  whatever  title  known) 
who  was  a  perfect  master  of  the  three  languages  (French, 
Latin,  and  English)  had  greatly  the  advantage  over  an 
opposing  agent  who  could  speak  only  French  and  Latin. 

From  the  Conquest  till  the  latter  half  of  the  fourteenth 
century  the  pleadings  in  courts  of  justice  were  in 
Norman-French;  but  in  the  36  Ed.  ILL,  it  was  ordained 
by  the  king  "  that  all  plees,  which  be  to  be  pleded  in  auy 
of  his  courts,  before  any  of  his  justices;  or  in  his  other 
places;  or  before  any  of  his  other  ministers;  or  in  the 
courts  and  places  of  any  other  lords  within  the  realm, 
shall  be  pleded,  shewed,  and  defended,  answered,  debated, 
and  judged  in  the  English  tongue,  and  that  they  be 


Legal  Education.  281 

entred  and  enrolled  in  Latine.  And  that  the  laws  and 
customs  of  the  same  realm,  termes,  and  processes,  be 
holden  and  kept  as  they  be,  and  "have  been  before  this 
time;  and  that  by  the  antient  termes  and  forms  of  the 
declarations  no  man  be  prejudiced;  so  that  the  matter  of 
the  action  be  fully  shewed  in  the  demonstration  and  in 
the  writ."  Long  before  this  wise  measure  of  reform  was 
obtained  by  the  urgent  wishes  of  the  nation,  the  French 
of  the  law  courts  had  become  so  corrupt  and  unlike  the 
language  of  the  invaders,  that  it  was  scarcely  more  intel- 
ligible to  educated  natives  of  France  than  to  most 
Englishmen  of  the  highest  rank.  A  jargon  compounded 
of  French  and  Latin,  none  save  professional  lawyers 
could  translate  it  with  readiness  or  accuracy;  and  whilst 
it  unquestionably  kept  suitors  in  ignorance  of  their  own 
affairs,  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  it  often  perplexed 
the  most  skilful  of  those  official  interpreters  who  were 
never  weary  of  extolling  his  lucidity  and  precision. 

But  though  English  lawyers  were  thus  expressly  for- 
bidden in  1362  to  plead  in  Law-French,  they  persisted  in 
using  the  hybrid  jargon  for  reports  and  treatises  so  late 
as  George  II. 's  reign;  and  for  an  equal  length  of  time 
they  seized  every  occasion  to  introduce  scraps  of  Law- 
French  into  their  speeches  at  the  bars  of  the  different 
courts.  It  should  be  observed  that  these  antiquarian 
advocates  were  enaWed  thus  to  display  their  useless 
erudition  by  the  provisions  of  King  Edward's  act,  which, 
while  it  forbade  French  pleadings,  specially  ordained 
the  retention  of  French  terms. 

«  Roger  North's  essay  '  On  the  study  of  the  Laws  *  con- 
tains amusing  testimony  to  the  affection  with  which  the 
lawyers  of  his  day  regarded  their  Law-French,  and  also 
shows  how  largely  it  was  used  till  the  close  of  the 
seventeenth  century  by  the  orators  of  Westminster  Hall. 
"  Here  I  must  stay  to  observe,"  says  the  author,  enthu- 


282  A  Book  about  Lawyers, 

siastically,  "  the  necessity  of  a  student's  early  application 
to  learn  the  old  Law-French,  for  these  books,  and  most 
others  of  considerable  authority,  are  delivered  in  it. 
Some  may  think  that  because  the  Law-French  is  no 
better  than  the  old  Norman  corrupted,  and  now  a  de- 
formed hotch-potch  of  the  English  and  Latin  mixed 
together,  it  is  not  fit  for  a  polite  spark  to  foul  himself 
with;  but  this  nicety  is  so  desperate  a  mistake,  that 
lawyer  and  Law-French  are  coincident;  one  will  not 
stand  without  the  other."  So  enamored  was  he  of 
the  grace  and  excellence  of  law-reporters'  French,  that 
he  regarded  it  as  a  delightful  study  for  a  man  of  fashion, 
and  maintained  that  no  barrister  would  do  justice  to  the 
law  and  the  interests  of  his  clients  who  did  not  season 
his  sentences  with  Norman  verbiage.  "  The  law,"  he 
held,  "is  scarcely  expressible  properly  in  English,  and 
when  it  is  done,  it  must  be  Franpoise,  or  very  uncouth." 
Edward  ITL's  measure  prohibitory  of  French  pleadings 
had  therefore  comparatively  little  influence  on  the  edu- 
cational course  of  law-students.  The  published  reports 
of  trials,  known  by  the  name  of  Year-Books,  were  com- 
posed in  French,  until  the  series  terminated  in  the  time 
of  Henry  Ylll. ;  and  so  late  as  George  II. 's  reign,  Chief 
Baron  Comyn  preferred  such  words  as  '  chemin,'  '  dis- 
mes,'  and  'baron  and  feme,'  to  such  words  as  'high- 
way,' 'tithes,'  'husband  and  wife.'  More  liberal  than 
the  majority  of  his  legal  brethren,  even  as  his  enlighten- 
ment with  regard  to  public  affairs  exceeded  that  of  ordi- 
nary politicians  of  his  time,  Sir  Edward  Coke  wrote  his 
commentaries  in  English,  but  when  he  published  them, 
he  felt  it  right  to  soothe  the  alarm  of  lawyers  by  assuring 
them  that  his  departure  from  ancient  usage  could  have  no 
disastrous  consequences.  "I  cannot  conjecture,"  he 
apologetically  observes  in  his  preface,  "  that  the  general 
communicating  these  laws  in  the  English  tongue  can 
work  any  inconvenience." 


Legal  Education.  283 

Some  of  the  primary  text-books  of  legal  lore  had  been 
rendered  into  English,  and  some  most  valuable  treatises 
had  been  written  and  published  in  the  mother  tongue  of 
the  country;  but  in  the  seventeenth  century  no  Inns-of- 
Court  man  could  acquire  an  adequate  acquaintance  with 
the  usages  and  rules  of  our  courts  and  the  decisions  of 
past  judges,  until  he  was  able  to  study  the  Year-Books 
and  read  Littleton  in  the  original.  To  acquire  this 
singular  language — a  dead  tongue  that  cannot  be  said  to 
have  ever  lived — was  the  first  object  of  the  law-student. 
He  worked  at  it  in  his  chamber,  and  with  faltering  and 
uncertain  accents  essayed  to  speak  it  at  the  periodic 
mootings  in  which  he  was  required  to  take  part  before  he 
could  be  called  to  the  bar,  and  also  after  he  had  become* 
an  utter-barrister.  In  his  'Autobiography,'  Sir  Simonds 
D'Ewes  makes  mention  in  several  places  of  his  Law- 
French  exercises  (temp.  James  I.),  and  in  one  place  of 
his  personal  story  he  observes,  "  I  had  twice  mooted  in 
Law-French  before  I  was  called  to  the  bar,  and  several 
times  after  I  was  made  an  utter-barrister,  in  our  open 
hall.  Thrice  also  before  I  was  of  the  bar,  I  argued  the 
reader's  cases  at  the  Inns  of  Chancery  publicly,  and  six 
times  afterwards.  And  then  also,  being  an  utter-barris- 
ter, I  had  twice  argued  our  Middle-Temple  reader's  case 
at  the  cupboard,  and  sat  nine  times  in  our  hall  at  the 
bench,  and  argued  such  cases  in  English  as  had  before 
been  argued  by  young  gentlemen  or  utter-barristers  in 
Law-French  bareheaded." 

Amongst  the  excellent  changes  by  which  the  more  en- 
lightened of  the  Commonwealth  lawyers  sought  to  lessen 
the  public  clamor  of  law-reform  was  the  resolution  that 
all  legal  records  should  be  kept,  and  all  writs  composed, 
in  the  language  of  the  country.  Hitherto  the  law  records 
had  been  kept  in  a  Latin  that  was  quite  as  barbarous  as 
the  French  used  by  the  reporters;  and  the  determination 


284  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

to  abolish  a  custom  which  served  only  to  obscure  the  op- 
erations of  justice  and  to  confound  the  illiterate  was 
hailed  by  the  more  intelligent  purchasers  of  law  as  a  no- 
table step  in  the  right  direction.  But  the  reform  was  by 
no  means  acceptable  to  the  majority  of  the  bar,  who  did 
not  hesitate  to  stigmatize  the  measure  as  a  dangerous  in- 
novation— which  would  prove  injurious  to  learned  lawyers 
and  peace-loving  citizens,  although  it  might  possibly 
serve  the  purposes  of  ignorant  counsel  and  litigious  '  lay 
gents.'*  The  legal  literature  of  three  generations  follow- 
ing Charles  L's  execution  abounds  with  contemptuous  al- 
lusions to  the  'English  times'  of  Cromwell;  the  old-fash- 
ioned reporters,  hugging  their  Norman-French  and 
'looking  with  suspicion  on  popular  intelligence,  were 
vehement  in  expressing  their  contempt  for  the  prevalent 
misuse  of  the  mother  tongue.  "  I  have,"  observes  Styles, 
in  the  preface  to  his  reports,  "made  these  reports  speak 
English;  not  that  I  believe  that  they  will  be  thereby 
more  generally  useful,  for  I  have  always  been  and  yet  am 
of  opinion,  that  that  part  of  the  Common  Law  which  is 
in  the  English  hath  only  occasioned  the  making  of  un- 
quiet spirits  contentiously  knowing,  and  more  apt  to  of- 
fend others  than  to  defend  themselves;  but  I  have  done 
it  in  obedience  to  authority,  and  to  stop  the  mouths  of 
such  of  this  English  age,  who,  though  they  be  con- 
fessedly different  in  their  minds  and  judgments,  as  the 
builders  of  Babel  were  in  their  language,  yet  do  think  it 
vain,  if  not  impious,  to  speak  or  understand  more  than 
their  own  mother  tongue."  In  like  manner,  Whitelock's 
uncle  Bulstrode,  the  celebrated  reporter,  says  of  the 
second  part  of  his  reports,  "that  he  had  manny  years 
since  perfected  the  words  in  French,  in  which  language 


*  In  the  seventeenth  century,  lawyers  usually  called  their  clients  and  the  non- 
legal  pnbUc  '  Lay  Gents.' 


Legal  Education.  285 

he  had  desired  it  might  have  seen  the  light,  being  most 
proper  for  it,  and  most  convenient  for  the  professors  of 
the  law." 

The  restorers  who  raised  Charles  II.  to  his  father's 
throne,  lost  no  time  in  recalling  Latin  to  the  records  and 
writs;  and  so  gladly  did  the  reporters  and  the  practising 
counsel  avail  themselves  of  the  reaction  in  favor  of  dis- 
carded usages,  that  more  Law-French  was  written  and 
talked  in  Westminster  Hall  during  the  time  of  the  re- 
stored king,  than  had  been  penned  and  spoken  through- 
out the  first  fifty  years  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

The  vexatious  and  indescribably  absurd  use  of  Law- 
Latin  in  records,  writs,  and  written  pleadings,  was  finally 
put  an  end  to  by  statute  4  George  IE.  c.  26;  but  this 
bill,  which  discarded  for  legal  processes  a  cumbrous  and 
harsh  language,  that  was  alike  unmusical  and  inexact, 
and  would  have  been  utterly  unintelligible  to  a  Roman 
gentleman  of  the  Augustan  period,  did  not  become  law 
without  much  opposition  from  some  of  the  authorities  of 
Westminster  Hall.  Lord  Raymond,  Chief  Justice  of  the 
King's  Bench,  spoke  in  accordance  with  opinions  that  had 
many  supporters  on  the  bench  and  at  the  bar,  when  he 
expressed  his  warm  disapprobation  of  the  proposed  mea- 
sure, and  sarcastically  observed  "  that  if  the  bill  passed, 
the  law  might  likewise  be  translated  into  Welsh,  since 
many  in  Wales  understood  not  English."  In  the  same 
spirit  Sir  Willian  Blackstone  and  more  recent  authorities 
have  lamented  the  loss  of  Law-Latin.  Lord  Camp- 
bell, in  the  '  Chancellors,'  records  that  he  "  heard  the  late 
Lord  Ellenborough  from  the  bench  regret  the  change,  on 
the  ground  that  it  had  had  the  tendency  to  make  attor- 
neys illiterate." 

The  sneer  by  which  Lord  Raymond  endeavored  to 
cast  discredit  on  the  proposal  to  abolish  Law-Latin,  was 
recalled  after  the  lapse  of  many  years  by  Sergeant  Hey- 


286  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

wood,  who  forthwith  acted  upon  it  as  though  it  originated 
in  serious  thought.  Whilst  acting  as  Chief  Justice  of 
the  Carmarthen  Circuit,  the  sergeant  was  presiding  over 
a  trial  of  murder,  when  it  was  discovered  that  neither 
the  prisoner,  nor  any  member  of  the  jury,  could  under- 
stand a  word  of  English;  under  these  circumstances  it 
was  suggested  that  the  evidence  and  the  charge  should 
be  explained  verbatim  to  the  prisoner  and  his  twelve  triers 
by  an  interpreter.  To  this  reasonable  petition  that  the 
testimony  should  be  presented  in  a  Welsh  dress,  the  judge 
replied  that,  "  to  accede  to  the  request  would  be  to  repeal 
the  act  of  parliament,  which  required  that  all  proceedings 
in  courts  of  justice  should  be  in  the  English  tongue,  and 
that  the  case  of  a  trial  in  Wales,  in  which  the  prisoner 
and  jury  should  not  understand  English,  was  a  case  not 
provided  for,  although  the  attention  of  the  legislature 
had  been  called  to  it  by  that  great  judge  Lord  Raymond." 
The  judge  having  thus  decided,  the  inquiry  proceeded — 
without  the  help  of  an  interpreter — the  counsel  for  the 
prosecution  favoring  the  jury  with  an  eloquent  harangue, 
no  single  sentence  of  which  was  intelligible  to  them  ; 
a  series  of  witnesses  proving  to  English  auditors, 
beyond  reach  of  doubt,  that  the  prisoner  had  deliberately 
murdered  his  wife ;  and  finally  the  judge  instructing  the 
jury,  in  language  which  was  as  insignificant  to  their  minds 
as  the  same  quantity  of  obsolete  Law-French  would  have 
been,  that  it  was  their  duty  to  return  a  verdict  of  '  Guilty.' 
Throwing  themselves  into  the  humor  of  the  business, 
the  Welsh  jurymen,  although  they  were  quite  familiar 
with  the  facts  of  the  case,  acquitted  the  murderer,  much 
to  the  encouragement  of  many  wretched  Welsh  husbands 
anxious  for  a  termination  of  their  matrimonial  sufferings. 


Legal  Education.  287 

CHAPTER   XXXVI. 

STUDENT    LIFE   IN    OLD    TIME. 

FRQM  statements  made  in  previous  chapters,  it  may 
be  seen  th-at  in  ancient  times  the  Law  University 
was  a  far  more  conspicuous  feature  of  the  metropolis  than 
it  has  been  in  more  modern  generations.  In  the  fifteenth 
century  the  law  students  of  the  town  numbered  about 
two  thousand;  in  Elizabethan  London  their  number  fluc- 
tuated between  one  thousand  and  two  thousand;  towards 
the  close  of  Charles.  II. 's  reign  they  were  probably  much 
less  than  fifteen  hundred;  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century  they  do  not  seem  to  have  much  exceeded  one 
thousand.  Thus  at  a  time  when  the  entire' population 
of  the  capital  was  considerably  less  than  the  population 
of  a  third-rate  provincial  town  of  modern  England,  the 
Inns  of  Court  and  Chancery  contained  more  under- 
graduates than  would  be  found  on  the  books  of  the  Ox- 
ford Colleges  at  the  present  time. 

Henry  VHX's  London  looked  to  the  University  for 
mirth,  news,  trade.  During  vacations  there  was  but 
little  stir  in  the  taverns  and  shops  of  Fleet  Street; 
haberdashers  and  vintners  sate  idle;  musicians  starved; 
and  the  streets  of  the  capital  were  comparatively  empty 
when  the  students  had  withdrawn  to  spend  their  holidays 
in  the  country.  As  soon  as  the  gentlemen  of  the  robe 
returned  to  town  all  was  brisk  and  merry  again.  As 
the  town  grew  in  extent  and  population,  the  social 
influence  of  the  university  gradually  decreased;  but  in 
Elizabethan  London  the  eclat  of  the  inns  was  at  its 
brightest,  and  during  the  reigns  of  Elizabeth's  two 
nearest  successors  London  submitted  to  the  Inns-of- 
Court  men  as  arbiters  of  all  matters  pertaining  to  taste 
— copying  their  dress,  slang,  amusements,  and  vices.     The 


288  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

same  may  be  said,  with,  less  emphasis,  of  Charles  II. 's 
London.  Under  the  '  Merry  Monarch  '  theatrical  mana- 
gers were  especially  anxious  to  please  the  inns!,  for  they 
knew  that  no  play  would  succeed  which  the  lawyers  had 
resolved  to  damn — that  no  actor  could  achieve  popu- 
larity if  the  gallants  of  the  Temple  combined  to  laugh 
him  down — that  no  company  of  performers  could  retain 
public  favor  when  they  had  lost  the  countenance  of 
law-colleges.  Something  of  this  power  the  young 
lawyers  retained  beyond  the  middle  of  the  last  century. 
Fielding  and  Addison  caught  with  nervous  eagerness  the 
critical  gossip  of  the  Temple  and  Chancery  Lane,  just  as 
Congreve  and  Wycherly,  Dryden  and  Cowley  had  caught 
it  in  previous  generations.  Fashionable  tradesmen  and 
caterers  for  the  amusement  of  the  public  made  their 
engagements  and  speculations  with  reference  to  the 
opening  of  term.  New  plays,  new  books,  new  toys 
were  never  offered  for  the  first  time  to  London  purchasers 
when  the  lawyers  were  away.  All  that  the  '  season '  is 
to  modern  London,  the  '  term '  was  to  old  London,  from 
the  accession  of  Henry  "VTH.  to  the  death  of  George  II., 
and  many  of  the  existing  commercial  and  fashionable 
arrangements  of  a  London  '  season '  maybe  traced  to  the 
old- world  'term.' 

In  olden  time  the  influence  of  the  law-colleges  was  as 
great  upon  politics  as  upon  fashion.  Sheltering  members 
of  every  powerful  family  in  the  country  they  were 
centres  of  political  agitation,  and  places  for  the  secret 
discussion  of  public  affairs.  Whatever  plot  was  in  course 
of  incubation,  the  inns  invariably  harbored  persons  who 
were  cognisant  of  the  conspiracy.  When  faction  decided 
on  open  rebellion  or  hidden  treason,  the  agents  of  the 
malcontent  leaders  gathered  together  in  the  inns,  where, 
so  long  as  they  did  not  rouse  the  suspicions  of  the 
authorities  and  maintained  the  bearing  of  studious  men, 


Legal  Education.  289 

they  could  hire  assassins,  plan  risings,  hold  interviews 
with  fellow-conspirators,  and  nurse  their  nefarious  pro- 
jects into  achievement.  At  periods  of  danger  therefore 
spies  were  set  to  watch  the  gates  of  the  hostels,  and  mark 
who  entered  them.  Governments  took  great  pains  to 
ascertain  the  secret  life  of  the  collegians.  A  succession 
of  royal  directions  for  the  discipline  of  the  inns  under 
the  Tudors  and  Stuarts  points  to  the  jealousy  and  con- 
stant apprehensions  with  which  the  sovereigns  of  England 
long  regarded  those  convenient  lurking-places  for  restless 
spirits  and  dangerous  adversaries.  Just  as  the  Student- 
quarter  of  Paris  is-  still  watched  by  a  vigilant  police,  so 
the  Inns  of  Court  were  closely  watched  by  the  agents  of 
"Wolsey  and  Thomas  Cromwell,  of  Burleigh  and  Bucking- 
ham. During  the  troubles  and  contentions  of  Elizabeth's 
reign  Lord  Burleigh  was  regularly  informed  concerning 
the  life  of  the  inns,  the  number  of  students  in  and  out 
of  town,  the  parentage  and  demeanor  of  new  members, 
the  gossip  of  the  halls,  and  the  rumors  of  the  cloisters. 
In  proportion  as  the  political  temper  and  action  of  the 
lawyers  were  deemed  matters  of  high  importance,  their 
political  indiscretions  and  misdemeanors  were  promptly 
and  sometimes  ferociously  punished.  An  idle  joke  over  a 
pot  of  wine  sometimes  cost  a  witty  barrister  his  social 
rank  and  his  ears.  To  promote  a  wholesome  fear  of 
authority  in  the  colleges,  government  every  now  and 
then  flogged  a  student  at  the  cart's  tail  in  Holborn,  or 
pilloried  a  sad  apprentice  of  the  law  in  Chancery  Lane, 
or  hung  an  ancient  on  a  gibbet  at  the  entrance  of  his 
inn. 

The  anecdote-books  abound  with  good  stories  that 
illustrate  the  political  excitability  of  the  inns  in  past  times, 
and  the  energy  with  which  ministers  were  wont  to  repress 
the  first  manifestations  of  insubordination.  Rush  worth 
records  the  adventure  of  four  young  men  of  Lincoln's  Inn 
13 


290  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

who  threw  aside  prudence  and  sobriety  in  a  tavern  hard 
by  their  inn,  and  drank  to  "  the  confusion  of  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury."  The  next  day,  full  of  penitence 
and  head-ache,  the  offenders  were  brought  before  the 
council,  and  called  to  account  for  their  scandalous  con- 
duct; when  they  would  have  fared  all  had  not  the  Earl 
of  Dorset  done  them  good  service,  and  privately  instructed 
them  to  say  in  their  defence,  that  they  had  not  drunk 
confusion  to  the  archbishop  but  to  the  archbishop's  foes. 
On  this  ingenious  representation,  the  council  supposed 
that  the  drawer — on  whose  information  the  proceedings 
were  taken — had  failed  to  catch  the  last  word  of  the  toast; 
and  consequently  the  young  gentlemen  were  dismissed 
with  a  '  light  admonition,'  much  to  their  own  surprise 
and  the  informer's  chagrin. 

Of  the  political  explosiveness  of  the  inns  in  Charles  II. 's 
time  Narcissus  Luttrell  gives  the  following  illustration  in 
his  diary,  under  date  June  15  and  16,  1681:—"  The  15th 
was  a  project  sett  on  foot  in  Grayes  Inn  for  the  carrying 
on  an  addresse  for  thankes  to  his  majestie  for  his  late 
declaration;  and  was  moved  that  day  in  the  hall  by  some 
at  dinner,  and  being  (as  is  usual)  sent  to  the  barre  messe 
to  be  by  them  recommended  to  the  bench,  but  was  rejected 
both  by  bench  and  barr;  but  the  other  side  seeing  they 
could  doe  no  good  this  way,  they  gott  about  forty  together 
and  went  to  the  tavern,  and  there  subscribed  the  said 
addresse  in  the  name  of  the  truelye  loyall  gentlemen  of 
Grayes  Inn.  The  chief  sticklers  for  the  said  addition 
were  Sir  William  Scroggs,  Jun.,  Robert  Fairebeard,  Capt. 
Stowe,  Capt.  Radcliffe,  one  Yalden,  with  others,  to  the 
number  of  40  or  thereabouts;  many  of  them  sharpers 
about  town,  with  clerks  not  out  of  their  time,  and  young 
men  newly  come  from  the  university.  And  some  of  them 
went  the  17th  to  Windsor,  and  presented  the  said  addresse 
to  his  majesty:  who  was  pleasd  to  give  them  his  thanks 


Legal  Education.  291 

and  confer  (it  is  said)  knighthood  on  the  said  Mr.  Faire- 
beard;  this  proves  a  mistake  since.  The  16th  was  much 
such  another  addresse  carried  on  in  the  Middle  Temple, 
where  several  Templars,  meeting  about  one  or  two  that 
afternoon  in  the  hall  for  that  purpose,  they  began  to 
debate  it,  but  they  were  opposed  till  the  hall  began  to 
fill ;  and  then  the  addressers  called  for  Mr.  Montague  to 
take  the  chaire;  on  which  a  poll  was  demanded,  but  the 
addressers  refused  it,  and  carried  Mr.  Montague  and  sett 
him  in  the  chaire,  and  the  other  part  pulled  him  out,  on 
which  high  words  grew,  and  some  blows  were  given;  but 
the  addressers  seeing  they  could  doe  no  good  with  it  in 
the  hall,  adjourned  to  the  Divill  Tavern,  and  there  signed 
the  addresse;  the  other  party  kept  in  the  hall,  and  fell  to 
protesting  against  such  illegal!  and  arbitrary  proceedings, 
subscribing  their  names  to  a  greater  number  than  the 
addressers  were,  and  presented  the  same  to  the  bench  as  a 
grievance." 

Like  the  King's  Head  Tavern,  which  stood  in  Chancery 
Lane,  the  Devil  Tavern,  in  Fleet  Street,  was  a  favorite 
house  with  the  Caroline  Lawyers.  Its  proximity  to  the 
Temple  secured  the  special  patronage  of  the  templars, 
whereas  the  King's  Head  was  more  frequented  by  Lin- 
coln's-Inn  men;  and  in  the  tavern-haunting  days  of  the 
seventeenth  century  those  two  places  of  entertainment 
saw  many  a  wild  and  dissolute  scene.  Unlike  Chattelin, 
who  endeavored  to  satisfy  his  guests  with  delicate  repasts 
and  light  wines,  the  hosts  of  the  Devil  and  the  King's 
Head  provided  the  more  substantial  fare  of  old  England, 
and  laid  themselves  out  to  please  roysterers  who  liked 
pots  of  ale  in  the  morning,  and  were  wont  to  drink 
brandy  by  the  pint  as  the  clocks  struck  midnight.  Nando's, 
the  house  where  Thurlow  in  his  student-period  used  to 
hold  nightly  disputations  with  all  comers  of  suitable  social 
rank,  was  an  orderly  place  in  comparison  with  these  more 


292  A  Book  about  Lwyers. 

venerable  hostelries;  and  though  the  Mitre,  Cock,  and 
Eainbow  have  witnessed  a  good  deal  of  deep  drinking,  it 
may  be  questioned  if  they,  or  any  other  ancient  taverns 
of  the  legal  quarter,  encouraged  a  more  boisterous  and 
reckless  revelry  than  that  which  constituted  the  ordinary 
course  of  business  at  the  King's  Head  and  the  Devil. 

In  his  notes  for  Jan.  1681-2,  Mr.  Narcissus  Luttrell 
observes — '  The  13th,  at  night,  some  young  gentlemen 
of  the  Temple  went  to  the  King's  Head  Tavern,  Chan- 
cery Lane,  committing  strange  outrages  there,  breaking 
windowes,  &c,  which  the  watch  hearing  of  came  to  dis- 
perse them;  but  they  sending  for  severall  of  the  water- 
men with  halberts  that  attend  their  comptroller  of  the 
revells,  were  engaged  in  a  desperate  riott,  in  which  one 
of  the  watchmen  was  run  into  the  body  and  lies  very  ill; 
but  the  watchmen  secured  one  or  two  of  the  watermen." 
Eleven  years  later  the  diarist  records:  "Jan.  5.  One 
Batsill,  a  young  gentleman  of  the  Temple,  was  committed 
to  Newgate  for  wounding  a  captain  at  the  Devil  Tavern 
in  Fleet  Street  on  Saturday  last."  Such  ebullitions  of 
manly  spirit — ebullitions  pleasant  enough  to  the  humorist, 
but  occasionally  productive  of  very  disagreeable  and  em- 
barrassing consequences — were  not  uncommon  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  Inns  of  Court  whilst  the  Christmas 
revels  were  in  progress. 

A  tempestuous,  hot-blooded,  irascible  set  were  these 
gentlemen  of  the  law-colleges,  more  zealous  for  their  own 
honor  than  careful  for  the  feelings  of  their  neighbors. 
Alternately  warring  with  sharp  tongues,  sharp  pens,  and 
sharp  swords  they  went  on  losing  their  tempers,  friends, 
and  lives  in  the  most  gallant  and  picturesque  manner 
imaginable.  Here  is  a  nice  little  row  which  occurred  in 
the  Middle  Temple  Hall  during  the  days  of  good  Queen 
Bess!  "The  records  of  the  society,"  says  Mr.  Foss, 
"preserve   an  account   of  the   expulsion  of  a  member, 


Legal  Education.  293 

which  is  rendered  peculiarly  interesting  in  consequence 
of  the  eminence  to  which  the  delinquent  afterwards 
attained  as  a  statesman,  a  poet,  and  a  lawyer.  Whilst 
the  masters  of  the  bench  and  other  members  of  the 
society  were  sitting  quietly  at  dinner  on  February  9, 
1597-8,  John  Davis  came  into  the  hall  with  his  hat  on 
his  head,  and  attended  by  two  persons  armed  with  swords, 
and  going  up  to  the  barrister's  table, .  where  Richard 
Martin  was  sitting,  he  pulled  out  from  under  his  gown 
a  cudgel  '  quern  vulgariter  vocant  a  bastinado,'  and  struck 
him  over  the  head  repeatedly,  and  with  so  much  violence 
that  the  bastinado  was  shivered  into  many  pieces.  Then 
retiring  to  the  bottom  of  the  hall,  he  drew  one  of  his 
attendants'  swords  and  flourished  it  over  his  head,  turn- 
ing his  face  towards  Martin,  and  then  turning  away  down 
the  water  steps  of  the  Temple,  threw  himself  into  a 
boat.  For  this  outrageous  act  he  was  immediately  dis- 
barred and  expelled  the  house,  and  deprived  for  ever  of 
all  authority  to  speak  or  consult  in  law.  After  nearly 
four  years'  retirement  he  petitioned  the  benchers  for  his 
restoration,  which  they  accorded  on  October  30,  1G01, 
upon  his  making  a  public  submission  in  the  hall,  and  ask- 
ing pardon  of  Mr.  Martin,  who  at  once  generously  forgave 
him."  Both  the  principals  in  this  scandalous  outbreak 
and  subsequent  reconciliation  became  honorably  known 
in  their  profession — Martin  rising  to  be  a  Recorder  of 
London  and  a  member  of  parliament;  and  Davies  acting 
as  Attorney  General  of  Ireland  and  Speaker  of  the  Irish 
parliament,  and  achieving  such  a  status  in  politics  and 
law  that  he  was  appointed  to  the  Chief  Justiceship  of 
England,  an  office,  however,  which  sudden  death  prevented 
him  from  filling. 

Nor  must  it  be  imagined  that  gay  manners  and  lax 
morals  were  less  general  amongst  the  veterans  than 
amongst  the  youngsters  of  the  bar.  Judges  and  sergeants 


294  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

were  quite  as  prone  to  levity  and  godless  riot  as  students 
about  to  be  called;  and  such  was  the  freedom  permitted 
by  professional  decorum  that  leading  advocates  habitually 
met  their  clients  in  taverns,  and  having  talked  themselves 
dry  at  the  bars  of  Westminster  Hall,  drank  themselves 
speechless  at  the  bars  of  Strand  taverns — ere  they  reeled 
again  into  their  chambers.  The  same  habits  of  up- 
roarious self-indulgence  were  in  vogue  with  the  benchers 
of  the  inns,  and  the  Doctors  of  Doctors'  Commons. 
Hale's  austerity  was  the  exceptional  demeanor  of  a 
pious  man  protesting  against  the  wickedness  of  an  im- 
pious age.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  shortness  of  time 
that  had  elapsed  since  Algernon  Sidney's  trial  and  sen- 
.tence,  John  Evelyn  would  have  seen  no  reason  for  cen- 
suring the  loud  hilarity  and  drunkenness  of  Jeffreys  and 
"Withings  at  Mrs.  Castle's  wedding. 

In  some  respects,  however,  the  social  atmosphere  of 
the  inns  was  far  more  wholesome  in  the  days  of  Eliza- 
beth, and  for  the  hundred  years  following  her  reign,  than 
it  is  at  present.  Sprung  in  most  cases  from  legal  fami- 
nes, the  students  who  were  educated  to  be  working  mem- 
bers of  the  bar  lived  much  more  under  the  observation 
of  their  older  relations,  and  in  closer  intercourse  with 
their  mothers  and  sisters  than  they  do  at  present.  Now- 
a-days  young  Templars,  fresh  from  the  universities,  would 
be  uneasy  and  irritable  under  strict  domestic  control ; 
and  as  men  with  beards  and  five-and-twenty  years'  know- 
ledge of  the  world,  they  would  resent  any  attempt  to 
draw  them  within  the  lines  of  domestic  control.  But 
in  Elizabethan  and  also  in  Stuart  London,  law-students 
were  considerably  younger  than  they  are  under  Victoria. 

Moreover,  the  usage  of  the  period  trained  young  men 
to  submit  with  cheerfulness  to  a  parental  discipline  that 
would  be  deemed  intolerable  by  our  own  youngsters. 
During  the  first  terms  of  their  eight,  seven,  or  at  least 


Legal  Education.  295 

six  years  of  pupilage,  until  they  could  secure  quarters 
within  college  walls,  students  frequently  lodged  in  the 
houses  or  chambers  of  near  relations  who  were  established 
in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  inns.  A  judge  with  a 
house  in  Fleet  Street,  an  eminent  counsel  with  a  family 
mansion  in  Holborn,  or  an  office-holder  with  commodious 
chambers  in  Chancery  Lane,  usually  numbered  amongst 
the  members  of  his  family  a  son,  or  nephew,  or  cousin 
who  was  keeping  terms  for  the  bar.  Thus  placed  under 
the  immediate  siiperintendence  of  an  elder  whom  he  re- 
garded with  affection  and  pride,  and  surrounded  by  the 
wholesome  interests  of  a  refined  domestic  circle,  the  raw 
student  was  preserved  from  much  folly  and  ill-doing  into 
which  he  would  have  fallen  had  he  been  thrown  entirely 
on  his  own  resources  for  amusement. 

The  pecuniary  means  of  Ihns-of-Court  students  have 
not  varied  much  throughout  the  last  twelve  generations. 
In  days  when  money  was  scarce  and  very  precious  they 
of  course  lived  on  a  smaller  number  of  coins  than  they 
require  in  these  days  when  gold  and  silver  are  compara- 
tively abundant  and  cheap;  but  it  is  reasonable  to  sup- 
pose that  in  every  period  the  allowances,  on  which  the 
less  affluent  of  them  subsisted,  represent  the  amounts  on 
which  young  men  of  their  respective  times  were  just  able 
to  maintain  the  figure  and  style  of  independent  gentle- 
men. The  costly  pageants  and  feasts  of  the  inns  in  old 
days  must  not  be  taken  as  indicative  of  the  pecuniary 
resources  of  the  common  run  of  students;  for  the  splen- 
dor of  those  entertainments  was  mainly  due  to  the 
munificence  of  those  more  wealthy  members  who  by  a 
liberal  .and  even  profuse  expenditure  purchased  a  right 
to  control  the  diversions  of  the  colleges.  Fortescue,  speak- 
ing of  his  own  time,  says:  "There  can  no  student  bee 
mayntayned  for  lesse  expenses  by  the  yeare  than  twentye 
markes.     And  if  hee  haue  a  seruant  to  waite  uppon  him, 


296  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

as  most  of  them  haue,  then  so  much  the  greater  will  his 
charges  bee."  Hence  it  appears  that  during  the  most 
patrician  period  of  the  law  university,  when  wealthy  per- 
sons were  accustomed  to  maintain  ostentatious  retinues 
of  servants,  a  law-student  often  had  no  private  personal 
attendant.  An  ordinance  shows  that  in  Elizabethan 
London  the  Inns-of-Court  men  were  waited  upon  by 
laundresses  or  bedmakers  who  served  and  took  wages 
from  several  masters  at  the  same  time.  It  would  be  in- 
teresting to  ascertain  the  exact  time  when  the  "laun- 
dress "  was  first  introduced  into  the  Temple.  She  cer- 
tainly flourished  in  the  days  of  Queen  Bess;  and  Koger 
North's  piquant  description  of  his  brother's  laundress  is 
applicable  to  many  of  her  successors  who  are  looking 
after  their  perquisites  at  the  present  date.  "  The  house- 
keeper," says  Eoger,  "  had  been  formerly  his  lordship's 
laundress  at  the  Temple,  and  knew  well  her  master's 
brother  so  early  as  when  he  was  at  the  writing-school. 
She  was  a  phthisical  old  woman,  and  could  scarce  crawl  up- 
stairs once  a  day"  This  general  employment  of  servants 
who  were  common  to  several  masters  would  alone  prove 
that  the  Inns-of-Court  men  in  the  seventeenth  century 
felt  it  convenient  to  husband  their  resources,  and  exer- 
cise economy.  Throughout  that  century  sixty  pounds 
was  deemed  a  sufficient  income  for  a  Temple  student; 
and  though  it  was  a  scant  allowance,  some  young  fellows 
managed  to  push  on  with  a  still  more  modest  revenue. 
Simonds  D'Ewes  had  £60  per  annum  during  his  student 
course,  and  £100  a  year  on  becoming  an  utter-barrister. 
"  It  pleased  God  also  in  mercy,"  he  writes,  "  after  this 
to  ease  me  of  that  continual  want  or  short  stipend  I  had 
for  about  five  years  last  past  groaned  under;  for  my 
father,  immediately  on  my  call  to  the  bar,  enlarged  my 
former  allowance  with  forty  pounds  more  annually;  so 
as,  after  this  plentiful  annuity  of  one  hundred  pounds 


Legal  Education.  297 

was  duly  and  quarterly  paid  me  by  him,  I  found  myself 
easyd  of  so  many  cares  and  discontents  as  I  may  well 
account  that  the  27th  day  of  June  foregoing  the  first  day 
of  my  outward  happiness  since  the  decease  of  my  dearest 
mother."  All  things  considered,  a  bachelor  in  James  L's 
London  with  a  clear  income  of  £100  per  annum  was  on  the 
whole  as  well  off  for  his  time  as  a  young  barrister  of  the 
present  day  would  be  with  an  annual  allowance  of  £250  or 
£300.  Francis  North,  when  a  student,  was  allowed  only 
£60  per  annum ;  and  as  soon  as  he  was  called  and  began 
to  earn  a  little  money,  his  parsimonious  father  reduced 
the  stipend  by  £10;  but,  adds  Roger  North,  "to  do  right 
to  his  good  father,  he  paid  him  that  fifty  pounds  a  year 
as  long  as  he  lived,  saying  he  would  not  discourage  in- 
dustry by  rewarding  it,  when  successful,  with  less." 
George  Jeffreys,  in  his  student-days,  smarted  under  a 
still  more  galling  penury,  for  he  was  allowed  only  £50  a 
year,  £10  being  for  his  clothes,  and  £40  for  the  rest  of 
his  expenditure.  In  the  following  century  the  nominal 
incomes  of  law-students  rose  in  proportion  as  the  wealth 
of  the  country  increased  and  the  currency  fell  in  value. 
In  George  U.'s  time  a  young  Templar  expected  his  father 
to  allow  him  £150  a  year,  and  on  encouragement  would 
spend  twice  that  amount  in  the  same  time.  Henry 
Fielding's  allowance  from  General  Fielding  was  £200  per 
annum ;  but  as  he  said,  with  a  laugh,  he  had  too  feeling 
and  dutiful  a  nature  to  press  an  affectionate  father  for 
money  which  he  was  totally  unable  to  pay.  At  the  pre- 
sent time  £150  per  annum  is  about  the  smallest  sum  on 
which  a  law-student  can  live  with  outward  decency;  and 
£250  per  annum  the  lowest  amount  on  which  a  chamber 
barrister  can  live  with  suitable  dignity  and  comfort.  If 
he  has  to  maintain  the  expenses  of  a  distant  circuit  Mr. 
Briefless  requires  from  £100  to  £200  more.  Alas !  how 
many  of  Mr.  Briefless's  meritorious  and  most  ornamental 
13* 


298  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

kind  are  compelled  to  shift  on  far  less  ample  means  I 
How  many  of  them  periodically  repeat  the  jest  of  poor 
A ,  who  made  this  brief  and  suggestive  official  re- 
turn to  the  Income  Tax  Commissioners — "I  am  totally 
dependent  on  my  father,  who  allows  me — nothing !" 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

READERS   AtfD    MOOTMEN. 


ROMANTIC  eulogists  of  the  Inns  of  Court  maintain 
that,  as  an  instrument  of  education,  the  law-univer- 
sity was  nearly  perfect  for  many  generations  after  its 
consolidation.  That  in  modern  time  abuses  have  im- 
paired its  faculties  and  diminished  its  usefulness  they 
admit.  Some  of  them  are  candid  enough  to  allow  that, 
as  a  school  for  the  systematic  study  of  law,  it  is  under 
existing  circumstances  a  deplorably  deficient  machine; 
but  they  unite  in  declaring  that  there  was  a  time  when 
the  system  of  the  combined  Colleges  was  complete  and 
thoroughly  efficacious.  The  more  cautious  of  these 
eulogists  decline  to  state  the  exact  limits  of  the  period 
when  the  actual  condition  of  the  university  merited  their 
cordial  approval,  but  they  concur  in  pointing  to  the  years 
between  the  accession  of  Henry  VII.  and  the  death  of 
James  I.,  as  comprising  the  brightest  days  of  its  aca- 
demical vigor  and  renown. 

It  is  however  worthy  of  observation  that  throughout 
the  times  when  the  legal  learning  and  discipline  of  the 
colleges  are  described  to  have  been  admirable,  the  system 
and  the  students  by  no  means  won  the  approbation  of 
those  critical  authorities  who  were  best  able  to  see  their 
failings  and  merits.    Wolsey  was  so  strongly  impressed 


Legal  Education.  299 

by  the  faulty  education  of  the  barristers  who  practised 
before  him,  and  more  especially  by  their  total  ignorance 
of  the  principles  of  jurisprudence,  that  he '  prepared  a 
plan  for  a  new  university  which  should  be  established 
in  London,  and  should  impart  a  liberal  and  exact  know- 
ledge of  law.  Had  he  lived  to  carry  out  his  scheme  it 
is  most  probable  that  the  Inns  of  Court  and  Chancery 
would  have  become  subsidiary  and  subordinate  establish- 
ments to  the  new  foundation.  In  this  matter,  sympa- 
thizing with  the  more  enlightened  minds  of  his  age, . 
Sir  Nicholas  Bacon  was  no  less  desirous  than  the  great 
cardinal  that  a  new  law  university  should  be  planted  in 
town,  and  he  urged  on  Henry  VIH.  the  propriety  of  devo- 
ting a  certain  portion  of  the  confiscated  church  property 
to  the  foundation  and  endowment  of  such  an  institution. 

On  paper  the  scheme  of  the  old  exercises  and  degrees 
looks  very  imposing,  and  those  who  delight  in  painting 
fancy  pictures  may  infer  from  them  that  the  scholastic 
order  of  the  colleges  was  perfect.  Before  a  young  man 
could  be  called  to  the  bar,  he  had  under  ordinary  circum- 
stances to  spend  seven  or  eight  years  in  arguing  cases 
at  the  Inns  of  Chancery,  in  proving  his  knowledge  of 
law  and  Law-French  at  moots,  in  sharpening  his  wits  at 
case -putting,  in  patient  study  of  the  Year-Books,  and  in 
watching  the  trials  of  Westminster  Hall.  After  his 
call  he  was  required  to  spend  another  period  in  study 
and  academic  exercise  before  he  presumed  to  raise  his 
voice  at  the  bar;  and  in  his  progress  to  the  highest 
rank  of  his  profession  he  was  expected  to  labor  in 
educating  the  students  of  his  house  as  assistant-reader, 
single-reader,  double-reader.  The  gravest  lawyers  of 
every  inn  were  bound  to  aid  in  the  task  of  teaching  the 
mysteries  of  the  law  to  the  rising  generation. 

The  old  ordinances  assumed  that  the  law-student  was 
thirsting  for  a  knowledge  of  law,  and  that  the  veterans 


300  A  Booh  about  Lawyers.- 

were  no  less  eager  to  impart  it.  During  term  law  was 
talked  in  hall  at  dinner  and  supper,  and  after  those 
meals  the  collegians  argued  points.  "  The  cases  were 
put "  after  the  earlier  repast,  and  twice  or  thrice  a  week 
moots  were  "brought  in"  after  the  later  meal.  The 
students  were  also  encouraged  to  assemble  towards  the 
close  of  each  day  and  practise  '  case-putting '  in  their 
gardens  and  in  the  cloisters  of  the  Temple  or  Lincoln's 
Inn.  The  '  great  fire '  of  1678-9  having  destroyed  the 
Temple  Cloisters,  some  of  the  benchers  proposed  to  erect 
chambers  on  the  ground,  to  and  fro  upon  which  law-stu- 
dents had  for  generations  walked  whilst  they  wrangled 
aloud;  but  the  Earl  of  Nottingham,  recalling  the  days 
when  young  Heneage  Finch  used  to  put  cases  with  his 
contemporary  students,  strangled  the  proposal  at  its 
birth,  and  Sir  Christopher  Wren  subsequently  built  the 
Cloisters  which  may  be  seen  at  the  present  day. 

But  there  is  reason  to  fear  that  at  a  very  early  period 
in  their  history  the  Inns  of  Court  began  to  pay  more 
attention  to  certain  outward  forms  of  instruction  than  to 
instruction  itself.  The  unbiassed  inquirer  is  driven  to 
suspect  that  '  case-putting '  soon  became  an  idle  cere- 
mony, and  '  mooting '  a  mere  pastime.  Gentlemen  ate 
heartily  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries;  and  it 
is  not  easy  to  believe  that  immediately  after  a  twelve 
o'clock  dinner  benchers  were  in  the  best  possible  mood 
to  teach,  or  students  in. the  fittest  condition  for  learning. 
It  is  credible  that  these  post-prandial  exercitations  were 
often  enlivened  by  sparkling  quips  and  droll  occurrences; 
but  it  is  less  easy  to  believe  that  they  were  characterised 
by  severe  thought  and  logical  exactness.  So  also  with 
the  after- supper  exercises.  The  six  o'clock  suppers  of 
the  lawyers  were  no  light  repasts,  but  hearty  meals  o'f 
meat  and  bread,  washed  down  by  '  green  pots  '  of  ale  and 
wine.     When  '  the  horn '  sounded  for  supper,  the  student 


Legal  Education.  301 

was  in  most  cases  better  able  to  see  the  truth  of  knotty 
points  than  when  in  compliance  with  etiquette  he  bowed 
to  the  benchers,  and  asked  if  it  was  their  pleasure  to 
hear  a  moot.  It  seems  probable  that  long  before  '  case- 
puttings '  and  'mootings'  were  altogether  disused,  the 
old  benchers  were  wont  to  wink  mischievously  at  each 
other  when  they  prepared  to  teach  the  boys,  and  that 
sometimes  they  would  turn  away  from  the  proceedings  of 
a  moot  with  an  air  of  disdain  or  indifference.  The 
inquirer  is  not  induced  to  rate  more  highly  the  intellec- 
tual effort  of  such  exercises  because  the  teachers  refreshed 
their  exhausted  powers  with  bread  and  beer  as  soon  as 
the  arguments  were  closed. 

When  such  men  as  Coke  and  Francis  Bacon  were  the 
readers,  the  students  were  entertained  with  lectures  of  sur- 
passing excellence;  but  it  was  seldom  that  such  readers 
could  be  found.  It  seems  also  that  at  an  early  period 
men  became  readers,  not  because  they  had  any  especial 
aptitude  for  offices  of  instruction,  or  because  they  had 
some  especial  fund  of  information — but  simply  because 
it  was  their  turn  to  read.  Routine  placed  them  in  the 
pulpit  for  a  certain  number  of  weeks;  and  when  they 
had  done  all  that  routine  required  of  them,  and  had 
thereby  qualified  themselves  for  promotion  to  the  rank 
of  sergeant,  they  took  their  seats  amongst  the  benchers 
and  ancients  with  the  resolution  not  to  trouble  them- 
selves again  about  the  intellectual  progress  of  the  boys. 

Soon  also  the  chief  teacher  of  an  Inn  of  Court  became 
its  chief  feaster  and  principal  entertainer ;  and  in  like 
manner  his  subordinates  in  office,  such  as  assistant  readers 
and  readers  elect,  were  required  to  put  their  hands  into 
their  pockets,  and  feed  their  pupils  with  venison  and  wine 
as  well  as  with  law  and  equity.  It  is  amusing  to  observe 
how  little  Dugdale  has  to  say  about  the  professional  duties 
of  readers — and  how  much  about  their  hospitable  functions 


302  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

and  responsibilities.  Philip  and  Mary  ordered  that  no 
reader  of  the  Middle  Temple  should  give  away  more  than 
fifteen  bucks  during  his  readings;  but  so  greatly  did  the 
cost  of  readers'  entertainments  increase  in  the  following 
century,  that  Dugdale  observes — "But  the  times  are 
altered;  there  being  few  summer  readers  who,  in  half  the 
time  that  heretofore  a  reading  was  wont  to  continue,  spent 
so  little  as  threescore  bucks,  besides  red  deer;  some  have 
spent  fourscore,  some  an  hundred." 

Just  as  readers  were  required  to  spend  more  in  hospi- 
tality, they  were  required  to  display  less  learning.  Sound 
lawyers  avoided  election  to  the  readers'  chairs,  leaving 
them  to  be  filled  by  rich  men  who  could  afford  to  feast 
the  nobility  and  gentry,  or  at  least  by  men  who  were 
willing  to  purchase  social  eclat  with  a  lavish  outlay  of 
money.  Under  Charles  II.  the  '  readings '  were  too  often 
nothing  better  than  scandalous  exhibitions  of  mental 
incapacity:  and  having  sunk  into  disrepute,  they  died 
out  before  the  accession  of  James  II. 

The  scandalous  and  beastly  disorder  of  the  Grand  Day 
Feasts  at  the  Middle  Temple,  during  Francis  North's 
tenure  of  the  reader's  office,  was  one  of  the  causes  that 
led  to  the  discontinuance  of  Reader's  Banquets  at  that 
house;  and  the  other  inns  gladly  followed  the  example  of 
the  Middle  Temple  in  putting  an  end  to  a  custom  which 
had  ceased  to  promote  the  dignity  of  the  law.  Of  this 
feast,  and  his  brother's  part  in  it,  Roger  North  says: 
"  He  {i.e.  Francis  North)  sent  out  the  officers  with  white 
staves  (for  so  the  way  was)  and  a  long  list  to  invite;  but 
he  went  himself  to  wait  upon  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, Sheldon;  for  so  also  the  ceremony  required.  The 
archbishop  received  him  very  honorably  and  would  not 
part  with  him  at  the  stairshead,  as  usually  had  been  done; 
but,  telling  him  he  was  no  ordinary  reader,  went  down, 
and  did  not  part  till  he  saw  him  past  at  his  outward  gate. 


Legal  Education.  303 

I  cannot  much  commend  the  extravagance  of  the  feasting 
used  at  these  readings;  and  that  of  his  lordship's  was  so 
terrible  an  example,  that  I  think  none  hath  ventured  since 
to  read  publicly;  but  the  exercise  is  turned  into  a  revenue, 
and  a  composition  is  paid  into  the  treasury  of  the  society. 
Therefore  one  may  say,  as  was  said  of  Cleomenes,  that, 
in  this  respect,  his  lordship  was  ultimus  herorum,  the 
last  of  the  heroes.  And  the  profusion  of  the  best  pro- 
visions, and  wine,  was  to  the  worst  of  purposes — de- 
bauchery, disorder,  tumult,  and  waste.  I  will  give  but  one 
instance;  upon  the  grand  day,  as  it  was  called,  a  banquet 
was  provided  to  be  set  upon  the  table,  composed  of 
pyramids,  and  smaller  services  in  form.  The  first  pyra- 
mid was  at  least  four  feet  high,  with  stages  one  above 
another.  The  conveying  this  up  to  the  table,  through 
a  crowd,  that  were  in  full  purpose  to  overturn  it,  was  no 
small  work:  but,  with  the  friendly  assistance  of  the  gen- 
tlemen, it  was  set  whole  upon  the  table.  But,  after  it 
was  looked  upon  a  little,  all  went,  hand  over  hand,  among 
the  rout  in  the  hall,  and  for  the  most  part  was  trod 
under  foot.  The  entertainment  the  nobility  had  out  of 
this  was,  after  they  had  tossed  away  the  dishes,  a  view  of 
the  crowd  in  confusion,  wallowing  one  over  another,  and 
contending  for  a  dirty  share  of  it." 

It  would,  however,  be  unfair  to  the  ancient  exercises 
of  '  case-putting '  and  '  mooting '  not  to  bear  in  mind  that 
by  habituating  successful  barristers  to  take  personal 
interest  in  the  professional  capabilities  of  students,  they 
helped  to  maintain  a  salutary  intercourse  betwixt  the 
younger  and  older  members  of  the  profession.  So  long 
as  '  moots'  lasted,  it  was  the  fashion  with  eminent  counsel 
to  accost  students  in  Westminster  Hall,  and  gossip  with 
them  about  legal  matters.  In  Charles  EC's  time,  such 
eminent  barristers  as  Sir  Geoffrey  Palmer  daily  gave 
practical  hints  and  valuable  suggestions  to  students  who 


304  A  Book  about  Lawyers 

courted  their  favor;  and  accurate  legal  scholars,  such  as 
old  'Index  Waller,'  would;  under  judicious  treatment, 
exhibit  their  learning  to  boys  ambitious  of  following  in 
their  steps.  Chief  Justice  Saunders,  during  the  days  of 
his  pre-eminence  at  the  bar,  never  walked  through  "West- 
minster Hall  without  a  train  of  lads  at  his  heels.  "  I 
have  seen  him,"  says  Roger  North,  "for  hours  and  half- 
hours  together,  before  the  court  sat,  stand  at  the  bar, 
with  an  audience  of  students  over  against  him,  putting 
of  cases,  and  debating  so  as  suited  their  capacities,  and 
encouraged  their  industry.  And  so  in  the  Temple,  he 
seldom  moved  without  a  parcel  of  youths  hanging  about 
him,  and  he  merry  and  jesting  with  them." 

Long  after  '  moots '  had  fallen  into  disuse,  their  in- 
fluence in  this  respect  was  visible  in  the  readiness  of 
wigged  veterans  to  extend  a  kindly  and  useful  patronage 
to  students.  Even  so  late  as  the  close  of  the  last  century, 
great  black-letter  lawyers  used  to  accost  students  in 
Westminster  Hall,  and  give  them  fair  words,  in  a  manner 
that  would  be  misunderstood  in  the  present  day.  Sergeant 
Hill — whose  reputation  for  recondite  legal  erudition,  re- 
sembled that  of  "  Index  Waller,'  or  Maynard,  in  the  seven- 
teenth century — once  accosted  John  Scott,  as  the  latter, 
in  his  student  days,  was  crossing  Westminster  Hall. 
"Pray,  young  gentleman,"  said  the  black-letter  lawyer, 
"  do  you  think  herbage  and  pannage  rateable  to  the 
poor's  rate  ?"  "  Sir,"  answered  the  future  Lord  Eldon, 
with  a  courteous  bow  to  the  lawyer,  whom  he  knew  only 
by  sight,  "  I  cannot  presume  to  give  any  opinion,  inex- 
perienced and  unlearned  as  I  am,  to  a  person  of  your 
great  knowledge,  and  high  character  in  the  profession." 
"  Upon  my  word,"  replied  the  sergeant,  eyeing  the  young 
man  with  unaffected  delight,  "  you  are  a  pretty  sensible 
young  gentleman;  I  don't  often  meet  with  such.  If  I  had 
asked  Mr.  Burgess,  a  young  man  upon  our  circuit,  the 


Legal  Education.  305 

question,  he  would  have  told  me  that  I  was  an  old  fool. 
You  are  an  extraordinary  sensible  young  gentleman." 

The  pei*iod  when  '  readings,'  '  mooting,'  and  '  case-put- 
ting '  fell  into  disuse  or  contempt,  is  known  with  sufficient 
accuracy.  Having  noticed  the  decay  of  readings,  Sir 
John  Bramston  writes,  in  Charles  TJ.'s  reign,  "At  this 
tyme  readings  are  totally  in  all  the  Inns  of  Court  layd 
aside;  and  to  speak  truth,  with  great  reason,  for  it  was 
a  step  at  once  to  the  dignity  of  a  sergeant,  but  not  soe 
now."  Marking  the  time  when  moots  became  farcical 
forms,  Roger  North  having  stated  that  his  brother 
Francis,  when  a  student,  was  "  an  attendant  (as  well  as 
exerciser)  at  the  ordinary  moots  in  the  Middle  Temple 
and  at  New  Inn,"  goes  on  to  say,  "  In  those  days,  the 
moots  were  carefully  performed,  and  it  is  hard  to  give  a 
good  reason  (bad  ones  are  prompt  enough)  why  they  are 
not  so  now.".  But  it  should  be  observed,  that  though  for 
all  practical  purposes  '  moots '  and  ■  case-puttings '  ceased 
in  Charles  II. 's  time,  they  were  not  formally  abolished. 
Indeed,  they  lingered  on  throughout  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  to  the  present  time — when  vestiges  of  them 
may  still  be  observed  in  the  usages  and  discipline  of  the 
Inns.  Before  the  writer  of  this  page  was  called  to  the 
bar  by  the  Masters  of  the  Society  of  Lincoln's  Inn,  he, 
like  all  other  students  of  his  time,  had  to  go  through  the 
form  of  putting  a  case  on  certain  days  in  the  hall  after 
dinner.  The  ceremony  appeared  to  him  alike  ludicrous  and 
interesting.  To  put  his  case,  he  was  conducted  by  the 
steward  of  the  inn  to  the  top  of  the  senior  bar  table,  when 
the  steward  placed  an  open  MS.  book  before  him,  and  said, 
"Read  that,  sir;"  whereupon  this  deponent  read  aloud 
something  about  "  a  femme  sole,"  or  some  such  thing, 
and  was  still  reading  the  rest  of  the  MS.,  kindly  opened 
under  his  nose  by  the  steward,  when  that  worthy  officer 
checked  him  suddenly,  saying,  "  That  will  do,  sir;  you 


306  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

have  put  your  case — and  can  sign  the  book."  The  book 
duly  signed,  this  deponent  bowed  to  the  assembled  bar- 
risters, and  walked  out  of  the  hall,  smiling  as  he  thought 
how,  by  an  ingenious  fiction,  he  was  credited  with  having 
put  an  elaborate  case  to  a  college  of  profound  jurists, 
with  having  argued  it  before  an  attentive  audience,  and 
with  having  borne  away  the  laurels  of  triumph.  Recently 
this  pleasant  mockery  of  case-putting  has  been  swept 
away. 

In  Roger  North's  '  Discourse  on  the  Study  of  the  Laws,' 
and  '  Life  of  the  Lord  Keeper  Guildford,'  the  reader  may 
see  with  clearness  the  course  of  an  industrious  law- 
student  during  the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
and  it  differs  less  from  the  ordinary  career  of  an  in- 
dustrious Temple-student  in  our  time,  than  many  recent 
writers  on  the  subject  think. 

Under  Charles  IT.,  James  EL,  and  William  EH.  the 
law-student  was  compelled  to  master  the  barbarous  Law- 
Trench;  but  the  books  which  he  was  required  to  read 
were  few  in  comparison  with  those  of  a  modern  Inns-of- 
Court  man.  Roger  North  mentions  between  twenty  and 
thirty  authors,  which  the  student  should  read  in  addition 
to  Year-Books  and  more  recent  reports;  and  it  is  clear 
that  the  man  who  knew  with  any  degree  of  familiarity 
such  a  body  of  legal  literature  was  a  very  erudite  lawyer 
two  hundred  years  since.  But  the  student  was  advised 
to  read  this  small  library  again  and  again,  "  common- 
placing "  the  contents  of  its  volumes,  and  also  "  common- 
placing "  all  new  legal  facts.  The  utility  and  convenience 
of  common-place  books  were  more  apparent  two  centuries 
since,  than  in  our  time,  when  books  of  reference  are 
always  published  with  good  tables  of  contents  and  alpha- 
betical indexes.  Roger  North  held  that  no  man  could 
become  a  good  lawyer  who  did  not  keep  a  common-place 
book     He  instructs  the  student  to  buy  for  a  common- 


Legal  Education.  307 

place  register  "  a  good  large  paper  book,  as  big  as  a 
church  bible;"  he  instructs  him  how  to  classify  the  facts 
which  should  be  entered  in  the  work;  and  for  a  model  of 
a  lucid  and  thoroughly  lawyer-like  common-place  book  he 
refers  "  to  Lincoln's  Inn  library,  where  the  Lord  Hale's 
common-place  book  is  conserved,  and  that  may  be  a  pat- 
tern, instar  omnium." 


CHAPTER  XXXVm. 

PUPILS   IN    CHAMBERS. . 


BUT  the  most  important  part  of  an  industrious  law- 
student's  labors  in  olden  time,  was  the  work  of 
watching  the  practice  of  Westminster  HalL  In  the 
seventeenth  century,  the  constant  succession  of  political 
trials  made  the  King's  Bench  Court  especially  attractive 
to  students  who  were  more  eager  for  gossip  than  ad- 
vancement of  learning;  but  it  was  always  held  that  the 
student,  who  was  desirous  to  learn  the  law  rather  than  to 
catch  exciting  news  or  hear  exciting  speeches,  ought  to 
frequent  the  Common  Pleas,  in  which  court  the  common 
law  was  said  to  be  at  home.  At  the  Common  Pleas,  a 
student  might  find  a  seat  vacant  in  the  students'  benches 
so  late  as  ten  o'clock;  but  it  was  not  unusual  for  every 
place  devoted  to  the  accommodation  of  students  in  the 
Court  of  King's  Bench,  to  be  occupied  by  six  o'clock,  a.  m. 
By  dawn,  and  even  before  the  sun  had  begun  to  break, 
students  bent  on  getting  good  seats  at  the  hearing  of  an 
important  cause  would  assemble,  and  patiently  wait  in 
court  till  the  judges  made  their  appearance. 

One  prominent   feature   in   the  advocate's  education 
must  always  be  elocutionary  practice.     "  Talk  ;  if  you 


308  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

can,  to  the  point,  but  anyhow  talk,"  has  been  the  motto 
of  Advocacy  from  time  immemorial.  Heneage  Finch, 
who,  like  every  member  of  his  silver-tongued  family,  was 
an  authority  on  matters  pertaining  to  eloquence,  is  said 
to  have  advised  a  young  student  "to  study  all  the 
morning  and  talk  all  the  afternoon."  Sergeant  Maynard 
used  to  express  his  opinion  of  the  importance  of  eloquence 
to  a  lawyer  by  calling  law  the  "  ars  bablativa."  Roger 
North  observes — "  He  whose  trade  is  speaking  must  not, 
whatever  comes  out,  fail  to  speak,  for  that  is  a  fault  in 
the  main  much  worse  than  impertinence."  And  at  a 
recent  address  to  the  students  of  the  London  University, 
Lord  Brougham  urged  those  of  his  auditors,  who  intended 
to  adopt  the  profession  of  the  bar,  to  habituate  themselves 
to  talk  about  everything. 

In  past  times  law-students  were  proverbial  for  their 
talkativeness;  and  though  the  present  writer  has  never 
seen  any  records  of  a  Carolinian  law-debating  society, 
it  is  matter  of  certainty  that  in  the  seventeenth  century 
the  young  students  and  barristers  formed  themselves  into 
coteries,  or  clubs,  for  the  practice  of  elocution  and  for 
legal  discussions.  The  continual  debates  on  'mootable 
days,'  and  the  incessant  wranglings  of  the  Temple 
cloisters,  encouraged  them  to  pay  especial  attention  to 
such  exercises.  In  Charles  II. 's  reign  'Pool's  company, 
was  a  coterie  of  students  and  young  barristers,  who  used 
to  meet  periodically  for  congenial  conversation  and 
debate.  "  There  is  seldom  a  time,"  says  Roger  North, 
speaking  of  this  coterie,  "  but  in  every  Inn  of  Court  there 
is  a  studious,  sober  company  that  are  select  to  each  other, 
and  keep  company  at  meals  and  refreshments.  Such  a 
company  did  Mr.  Pool  find  out,  whereof  Sergeant  Wild 
was  one,  and  every  one  of  them  proved  eminent,  and 
most  of  them  are  now  preferred  in  the  law;  and  Mr. 
Pool,  at  the  latter  end  of  his  life,  took  such  a  pride  in 


Legal  Education.  309 

his  company  that  he  affected  to  furnish  his  chambers 
with  their  pictures."  Amongst  the  benefits  to  be  derived 
from  such  a  club  as  that  of  which  Mr.  Pool  was  presi- 
dent, Roger  North  mentions  "Aptness  to  speak;"  adding: 
"  for  a  man  may  be  possessed  of  a  book-case,  and  think 
he  has  it  ad  unguem  throughout,  and  when  he  offers  at  it 
shall  find  himself  at  a  loss,  and  his  words  will  not  be  right 
and  proper,  or  perhaps  too  many,  and  his  expressions  con- 
fused :  when  he  has  once  talked  his  case  over,  and  his 
company  have  tossed  it  a  little  to  and  fro,  then  he  shall 
utter  it  more  readily,  with  fewer  words  and  much  more 
force." 

These  words  make  it  clear  that  Mr.  Pool's  '  company ' 
was  a  select  'law-debating  society.'  Far  smaller  as  to 
number  of  members,  something  more  festive  in  its 
arrangements,  but  not  less  bent  on  furthering  the  pro- 
fessional progress  of  its  members,  it  was,  some  two 
hundred  years  since,  all  that  the  '  Hardwicke  '  and  other 
similar  associations  are  at  the  present.* 

To  such  fraternities — of  which  the  Inns  of  Court  had 
several  in  the  last  century — Murray  and  Thurlow,  Law 


*  The  mention  of  '  the  Hardwicke  '  brings  a  droll  story  to  the  writer's  mind. 
Some  few  years  since  the  members  of  that  learned  fraternity  assembled  at  their 
customary  place  of  meeting — a  large  room  in  Anderton's  Hotel,  Fleet  Street — to  dis- 
cuss a  knotty  point  of  law  anent  Uses.  The  muster  of  young  men  was  strong  ; 
and  amongst  them — conspicuous  for  his  advanced  years,  jovial  visage,  red  nose, 
and  air  of  perplexity — sate  an  old  g<  ntleman  who  was  evidently  a  stranger  to  every 
lawyer  present.  Who  was  he  ?  Who  brought  him  ?  Was  tl^ere  any  one  in  the 
room  who  knew  him  ?  Such  were  the  whispers  that  floated  about,  concerning  the 
portly  old  man,  arrayed  in  blue  coat  and  drab  breeches  and  gaiters,  who  took  his 
snuff  in  silence,  and  watched  the  proceedings  with  evident  surprise  and  dissatis- 
faction. After  listening  to  three  speeches  this  antique,  jolly  stranger  rose,  and  with 
much  embarrassment  addressed  the  chair.  "Mr.  President,"  he  said — "excuse 
me;  but  may  I  ask, — is  this  'The  Convivial  Babbits?'  "  A  roar  of  laughter  fol- 
lowed this  enquiry  from  a  'convivial  rabbit,'  who  having  mistaken  the  evening  of 
the  week,  had  wandered  into  the  room  in  which  his  convivial  fellow-clubsters  had 
held  a  meeting  on  the  previous  evening.  On  receiving  the  President's  assurance 
that  the  learned  members  of  a  law-debating  society  were  not  '  convivial  rabbits,' 
the  elderly  stranger  buttoned  his  blue  coat  and  beat  a  speedy  retreat. 


310  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

and  Erskine  had  recourse :  and  besides  attending  strictfy 
professional  clubs,  it  was  usual  for  the  students,  of  their 
respective  times,  to  practise  elocution  at  the  coffee-houses 
and  public  spouting-rooms  of  the  town.  Murray  used 
to  argue  as  well  as  '  drink  champagne '  with  the  wits  ; 
Thurlow  was  the  irrepressible  talker  of  Nando's;  Erskine 
used  to  carry  his  scarlet  uniform  from  Lincoln's  Inn  Hall, 
to  the  smoke-laden  atmosphere  of  Coachmakers'  Hall, 
at  which  memorable  '  discussion  forum '  Edward  Law  is 
known  to  have  spoken  in  the  presence  of  a  closely 
packed  assembly  of  politicians,  idlers  upon  town,  shop- 
men, and  drunkards.  Thither  also  Home  Tooke  and 
Dunning  used  to  adjourn  after  dining  with  Taffy  Ken- 
yon  at  the  Chancery  Lane  eating-house,  where  the  three 
friends  were  won't  to  stay  their  hunger  for  sevenpence 
halfpenny  each.  "Dunning  and  myself,"  Home  Tooke 
said  boastfully,  when  he  recalled  these  economical  repasts, 
"  were  generous,  for  we  gave  the  girl  who  waited  on  us  a 
penny  apiece  ;  but  Kenyon,  who  always  knew  the  value 
of  money,  rewarded  her  with  a  halfpenny,  and  sometimes 
with  a  promise." 

Notwithstanding  the  recent  revival  of  lectures  and  the 
institution  of  examinations,  the  actual  course  of  the  law- 
student  has  changed  little  since  the  author  of  the 
'  Pleader's  Guide,'  in  1706,  described  the  career  of  John 
Surrebutter,  Esq.,  Special  Pleader  and  Barrister-at-Law. 
The  labors  of  •  pupils  in  chambers,  are  thus  noticed  by 
Mr.  Surrebutter  : — 

"And,  better  to  improve  your  taste, 
Are  by  your  parents'  fondness  plac'd 
Amongst  the  blest,  the  chosen  few 
(Blest,  if  their  happiness  they  knew), 
"Who  for  three  hundred  guineas  paid 
To  some  great  master  of  the  trade, 
Have  at  his  rooms  by  special,  favor 
His  leave  to  use  their  best  endeavor, 


Legal  Education.  311 

By  drawing  pleas  from  nine  till  four, 
•  To  earn  him  twice  three  hundred  more  ; 
And  after  dinner  may  repair 
To  'foresaid  rooms,  and  then  and  there 
Have  'foresaid  leave  from  five  till  ten, 
To  draw  th'  aforesaid  pleas  again." 

Continuing  to  describe  his  professional  career,  Mr.  Surre- 
butter mentions  certain  facts  which  show  that  so  late  as 
the  close  of  last  century  professional  etiquette  did  not  for- 
bid special  pleaders  and  barristers  to  curry  favor  with 
solicitors  and  solicitors'  clerks  by  attentions  which  would 
now-a-days  be  deemed  reprehensible.     He  says  : — 

"Whoe'er  has  drawn  a  special  plea 
Has  heard  of  old  Tom  Tewkesbury, 
Deaf  as  a  post,  and  thick  as  mustard, 
He  aim'd  at  wit,  and  bawl'd  and  bluster'd 
And  died  a  Nisi  Prius  leader — 
That  genius  was  my  special  pleader — 
That  great  man's  office  I  attended 
By  Hawk  and  Buzzard  recommended  • 
Attorneys  both  of  wondrous  skill, 
To  pluck  the  goose  and  drive  the  quill. 
Three  years  I  sat  his  smoky  room  in, 
Pens,  paper,  ink,  and  pounce  consuming  ; 
The  fourth,  when  Epsom  Day  begun, 
Joyful  I  hailed  th'  auspicious  sun, 
Bade  Tewkesbury  and  Clerk  adieu  ; 
(Purification,  eighty-two) 
Of  both  I  wash'd  my  hands;  and  though 
"With  nothing  for  my  cash  to  show, 
But  precedents  so  scrawl'd  and  blurr'd, 
I  scarce  could  read  a  single  word, 
Nor  in  my  books  of  common-place 
One  feature  of  the  law  could  trace, 
Save  Buzzard's  nose  and  visage  thin, 
And  Hawk's  deficiency  of  chin, 
Which  I  while  lolling  at  my  ease 
Was  wont  to  draw  instead  of  pleas. 
My  chambers  I  equipt  complete, 


312  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

Made  friends,  hired  books,  and  gave  to  eat ; 

If  haply  to  regale  my  friends  on, 

My  mother  sent  a  haunch  of  ven'son, 

I  most  respectfully  entreated 

The  choicest  company  to  eat  it; 

To  wit,  old  Buzzard,  Hawk,  and  Crow; 

Item,  Tom  Thornback,  Shark,  and  Co. 

Attorneys  all  as  keen  and  staunch 

As  e'er  devoured  a  client's  haunch. 

And  did  I  not  their  clerks  invite 

To  taste  said  ven'son  hash'd  at  night  ? 

For  well  I  knew  that  hopeful  fry 

My  rising  merit  would  descry, 

The  same  litigious  course  pursue, 

And  when  to  fish  of  prey  they  grew, 

By  love  of  food  and  contest  led, 

Would  haunt  the  spot  where  once  they  fed. 

Thus  having  with  due  circumspection 

Formed  my  professional  connexion, 

My  desks  with  precedents  I  strew'd, 

Turned  critic,  danc'd,  or  penn'd  an  ode, 

Suited  the  ton,  became  a  free 

And  easy  man  of  gallantry; 

But  if  while  capering  at  my  glass, 

Or  toying  with  a  favorite  lass, 

I  heard  the  aforesaid  Hawk  a-coming, 

Or  Blizzard  on  the  staircase  humming, 

At  once  the  fair  angelic  maid 

Into  my  coal-hole  I  convey 'd; 

At  once  with  serious  look  profound, 

Mine  eyes  commencing  with  the  ground, 

I  seem'd  like  one  estranged  to  sleep, 

'And  fixed  in  cogitation  deep,' 

Sat  motionless,  and  in  my  hand  I 

Held  my  'Doctrina  Placitandi,' 

And  though  I  never  read  a  page  in't, 

Thanks  to  that  shrewd,  well-judging  agent, 

My  sister's  husband,  Mr.  Shark, 

Soon  got  six  pupils  and  a  clerk. 

Five  pupils  were  my  stint,  the  other 

I  took  to  compliment  his  mother." 


Legal  Education.  313 

Having  fleeced  pupils,  and  worked  as  a  special  pleader 
for  a  time,  Mr.  Surrebutter  is  called  to  the  bar;  after 
which  ceremony  his  action  towards  '  the  inferior  branch ' 
of  the  profession  is  not  more  dignified  than  it  was  whilst 
he  practised  as  a  Special  Pleader. 

It  appears  that  in  Mr.  Surrebutter's  time  {circa  1780) 
it  was  usual  for  a  student  to  spend  three  whole  years  in 
the  same  pleader's  chambers,  paying  three  hundred 
guineas  for  the  course  of  study.  Not  many  years  passed 
before  students  saw  it  was  not  to  their  advantage  to  spend 
so  long  a  period  with  the  same  instructor,  and  by  the 
end  of  the  century  the  industrious  student  who  could 
command  the  fees  wherewith  to  pay  for  such  special 
tuition,  usually  spent  a  year  or  two  in  a  pleader's  cham- 
bers, and  another  year  or  two  in  the  chambers  of  an 
equity  draughtsman,  or  conveyancer.  Lord  Campbell, 
at  the  opening  of  the  present  century,  spent  three  years 
in  the  chambers  of  the  eminent  Special  Pleader,  Mr. 
Tidd,  of  whose  learning  and  generosity  the  biographer  of 
the  Chancellors  makes  cordial  and  grateful  acknowledg- 
ment. Finding  that  Campbell  could  not  afford  to  pay  a 
second  hundred  guineas  for  a  second  year's  instruction, 
Tidd  not  only  offered  him  the  run  of  his  chambers  with- 
out payment,  but  made  the  young  Scotchman  take  back 
the  i2105  which  he  had  paid  for  the  first  twelve 
months. 

In  his  later  years  Lord  Campbell  delighted  to  trace 
his  legal  pedigree  to  the  great  pleader  and '  pupillizer '  of 
the  last  century,  Tom  Warren.  The  chart  ran  thus  : 
"Tom  Warren  had  for  pupil  Sergeant  Runnington, 
who  instructed  in  the  mysteries  of  special  pleading  the 
learned  Tidd,  who  was  the  teacher  of  John  Campbell." 
With  honest  pride  and  pleasant  vanity  the  literary  Chan- 
cellor maintained  that  he  had  given  the  genealogical  tree 
another  generation  of  forensic  honor,  as  Solicitor  Gen- 
14 


314  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

eral  Dundas  and  Vaughan  Williams,  of  the  Common 
Pleas  Bench,  were  his  pupils. 

Though  Campbell  speaks  of  Tom  Warren  as  "  the 
greater  founder  of  the  special  pleading  race,"  "and  main- 
tains that  "the  voluntary  discipline  of  the  special 
pleader's  office  "  was  unknown  before  the  middle  of  the 
last  century,  it  is  certain  that  the  voluntary  discipline  of 
a  legal  instructor's  office  or  chambers  was  an  affair  of 
frequent  occurrence  long  before  Warren's  rise.  Roger 
North,  in  his  'Discourse  on  the  Study  of  the  Laws,' 
makes  no  allusion  to  any  such  voluntary  discipline  as  an 
ordinary  feature  of  a  law-student's  career;  but  in  his  '  Life 
of  Lord  Keeper  Guildford '  he  expressly  informs  us  that 
he  was  a  pupil  in  his  brother's  chambers.  "  His  lordship," 
writes  the  biographer,  "  having  taken  that  advanced  post, 
and  designing  to  benefit  a  relation  (the  Honorable 
Roger  North),  who  was  a  student  in  the  law,  and  kept 
him  company,  caused  his  clerk  to  put  into  his  hands  all 
his  draughts,  such  as  he  himself  had  corrected,  and  after 
which  conveyances  had  been  engrossed,  that,  by  a  peru- 
sal of  them,  he  might  get  some  light  into  the  formal 
skill  of  conveyancing.  And  that  young  gentleman 
instantly  went  to  work,  and  first  numbered  the  draughts, 
and  then  made  an  index  of  all  the  clauses,  referring  to 
that  number  and  folio;  so  that,  in  this  strict  perusal  and 
digestion  of  the  various  matters,  he  acquired,  not  only  a 
formal  style,  but  also  apt  precedents,  and  a  competent 
notion  of  instruments  of  all  kinds.  And  to  this  great 
condescension  was  owing  that  little  progress  he  made, 
which  afterwards  served  to  prepare  some  matters  for 
his  lordship's  own  perusal  and  settlement."  Here  then 
is  a  case  of  a  pupil  in  a  barrister's  chambers  in  Charles 
II.'s  reign;  and  it  is  a  case  that  suffers  nothing  from  the 
fact  that  the  teacher  took  no  fee. 

In  like  manner,  John  Trevor  (subsequently  Master  of 


Legal  Education.  315 

the  Rolls  and  Speaker  of  the  Commons)  about  the  same 
time  was  "  bred  a  sort  of  clerk  in  old  Arthur  Trevor's 
chamber,  an  eminent  and  worthy  professor  of  the  law  in 
the  Inner  Temple."  On  being  asked  what  might  be  the 
name  of  the  boy  with  such  a  hideous  squint  who  sate  at 
a  clerk's  desk  in  the  outer  room,  Arthur  Trevor  answered, 
"  A  kinsman  of  mine  that  I  have  allowed  to  sit  here,  to 
learn  the  knavish  part  of  the  law."  It  must  be  observed 
that  John  Trevor  was  not  a  clerk,  but  merely  a  "  sort  of 
a  clerk"  in  his  kinsman's  chamber. 

In  the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  in 
the  earlier  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  students  who 
wished  to  learn  the  practice  of  the  law  usually  entered 
the  offices  of  attorneys  in  large  practice.  At  that  period, 
the  division  between  the  two  branches  of  the  profession  . 
was  much  less  wide  than  it.  subsequently  became;  and 
no  rule  or  maxim  of  professional  etiquette  forbade  Inns- 
of-Court  men  to  act  as  the  subordinates  of  attorneys  and 
solicitors.  Thus  Philip  Yorke  (Lord  Hardwicke)  in 
Queen  Anne's  reign  acted  as  clerk  in  the  office  of  Mr. 
Salkeld,  an  attorney  residing  in  Brook  Street,  Holborn, 
whilst  he  kept  his  terms  at  the  Temple ;  and  nearly  fifty 
years  later,  Ned  Thurlow  (Lord  Thurlow),  on  leaving 
Cambridge,  and  taking  up  his  residence  in  the  Temple, 
became  a  pupil  in  the  office  of  Mr.  Chapman,  a  solicitor, 
whose  place  of  business  was  in  Lincoln's  Inn.  There  is 
no  doubt  that  it  was  customary  for  young  men  destined 
for  the  bar  thus  to  work  in  attorneys'  offices;  and  they 
continued  to  do  so  without  any  sense  of  humiliation  or 
thought  of  condescension,  until  the  special  pleaders 
superseded  the  attorneys  as  instructors. 


PART  TEL 

MIRTH. 
«»» 

CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

WIT    OF   LAWYERS. 

NO  lawyer  has  given  better  witticisms  to  the  jest- 
books  than  Sir  Thomas  More.  Like  all  legal  wits, 
he  enjoyed  a  pun,  as  Sir  Thomas  Manners,  the  mushroom 
Earl  of  Rutland  discovered,  when  he  winced  under  the  cut- 
ting reproof  of  his  insolence,  conveyed  in  the  translation 
of  '  Honores  mutant  mores  '  —  Honors  change  manners. 
But  though  he  would  condescend  to  play  with  words  as  a 
child  plays  with  shells  on  a  sea-beach,  he  could  at  will 
command  the  laughter  of  his  readers  without  having  re- 
course to  mere  verbal  antics.  He  delighted  in  what 
may  be  Wmed  humorous  mystification.  Entering  Bruges 
at  a  time  when  his  learing  had  gained  European  notori- 
ety, he  was  met  by  the  challenge  of  a  noisy  fellow  who 
proclaimed  himself  ready  to  dispute  with  the  whole 
world — or  any  other  man — "  in  omni  scibili  et  de  quolibet 
ente."  Accepting  the  invitation,  and  entering  the  lists 
in  the  presence  of  all  the  scholastic  magnates  of  Bruges, 
More  gravely  inquired,  "An  averia  carucae  capta  in 
vetitonamio  sint    irreplegibilia  ?"      Not  versed  in    the 


Mirth  317 

principles  and  terminology  of  the  common  law  of  Eng- 
land, the  challenger  could  only  stammer  and  blush — 
whilst  More's  eye  twinkled  maliciously,  and  his  auditors 
were  convulsed  with  laughter. 

Much  of  his  humor  was  of  the  sort  that  is  ordinal  ily 
called  quiet  humor,  because  its  effect  does  not  pass  off 
in  shouts  of  merriment.  Of  this  kind  of  pleasantry  he 
gave  the  Lieutenant  of  the  Tower  a  specimen,  when  he 
said,  with  as  much  courtesy  as  irony,  "  Assure  yourself 
I  do  not  dislike  my  cheer;  but  whenever  I  do,  then 
spare  not  to  thrust  me  out  of  your  doors!"  Of  the 
same  sort  were .  the  pleasantries  with  which,  on  the 
morning  of  his  execution,  he  with  fine  consideration  for 
others  strove  to  divert  attention  from  the  cruelty  of  his 
doom.  "  I  see  no  danger,"  he  observed,  with  a  smile,  to 
his  friend  Sir  Thomas  Pope,  shaking  his  water-bottle  as 
he  spoke,  "but  that  this  man  may  live  longer  if  it 
please  the  king."  Finding  in  the  craziness  of  the  scaf- 
fold a  good  pretext  for  leaning  in  friendly  fashion  on  his 
gaoler's  arm,  he  extended  his  hand  to  Sir  "William 
Kingston,  saying,  "  Master  Lieutenant,  I  pray  you  see 
me  safe  up;  for  my  coming  down  let  me  shift  for  myself." 
Even  to  the  headsman  he  gave  a  gentle  pleasantry  and  a 
smile  from  the  block  itself,  as  he  put  aside  his  beard  so 
that  the  keen  blade  should  not  touch  it.  "  Wait,  my 
good  friend,  till  I  have  removed  my  beard,"  he  said, 
turning  his  eyes  upwards  to  the  official,  "  for  it  has  never 
offended  his  highness. 

His  wit  was  not  less  ready  than  brilliant,  and  on  one 
occasion  its  readiness  saved  him  from  a  sudden  and  hor- 
rible death.  Sitting  on  the  roof  of  his  high  gate-house 
at  Chelsea,  he  was  enjoying  the  beauties  of  the  Thames 
and  the  sunny  richness  of  the  landscape,  when  his  soli- 
tude was  broken  by  the  unlooked-for  arrival  of  a  wander- 
ing maniac.     "Wearing  the  horn  and  badge   of  a  Bed- 


318  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

lamite,  the  unfortunate  creature  showed  the  signs  of 
his  malady  in  his  equipment  as  well  as  his  countenance. 
Having  cast  his  eye  downwards  from  the  parapet-  to  the 
foot  of  the  tower,  he  conceived  a  mad  desire  to  hurl  the 
Chancellor  from  the  flat  roof.  "  Leap,  Tom !  leap !" 
screamed  the  athletic  fellow,  laying  a  firm  hand  on 
More's  shoulder.  Fixing  his  attention  with  a  steady 
look,  More  said,  coolly,  "  Let  us  first  throw  my  little  dog 
down,  and  see  what  sport  that  will  be."  In  a  trice  the 
dog  was  thrown  into  the  air.  "Good!"  said  More, 
feigning  delight  at  the  experiment:  "now  run  down, 
fetch  the  dog,  and  we'll  throw  him  off  again."  Obeying 
the  command,  the  dangerous  intruder  left  More  free  to 
secure  himself  by  a  bar,  and  to  summon  assistance  with 
his  voice. 

For  a  good  end  this  wise  and  mirth-loving  lawyer 
would  play  the  part  of  a  practical  joker;  and  it  is  re- 
corded that  by  a  jest  of  the  practical  sort  he  gave  a 
wholesome  lesson  to  an  old  civic  magistrate,  who,  at  the 
Sessions  of  the  Old  Bailey,  was  continually  telling  the 
victims  of  cut-purses  that  they  had  only  themselves  to 
thank  for  their  losses — that  purses  would  never  be  cut 
if  their  wearers  took  proper  care  to  retain  them  in  their 
possession.  These  orations  always  terminated  with,  "  I 
never  lose  my  purse;  cut-purses  never  take  my  purse; 
no,  i'faith,  because  I  take  proper  care  of  it."  To  teach 
his  worship  wisdom,  and  cure  him  of  his  self-sufficiency, 
More  engaged  a  cut-purse  to  relieve  the  magistrate  of 
his  money-bag  whilst  he  sat  upon  the  bench.  A  story 
is  recorded  of  another  Old  Bailey  judge  who  became  the 
victim  of  a  thief  under  very  ridiculous  circumstances. 
Whilst  he  was  presiding  at  the  trial  of  a  thief  in  the 
Old  Bailey,  Sir  John  Sylvester,  Recorder  of  London, 
said  incidentally  that  he  had  left  his  watch  at  home. 
The  trial  ended  in   an   acquittal,  the  prisoner  had   no 


Mirth.  319 

sooner  gained  his  liberty  than  he  hastened  to  the 
recorder's  house,  and  sent  in  word  to  Lady  Sylvester 
that  he  was  a  constable  and  had  been  sent  from  the  Old 
Bailey  to  fetch  her  husband's  watch.  When  the  recor- 
der returned  home  and  found  he  had  lost  his  watch,  it 
is  to  be  feared  that  Lady  Sylvester  lost  her  usual 
equanimity.  Apropos  of  these  stories  Lord  Campbell 
tells — how,  at  the  opening  period  of  his  professional  ca- 
reer, soon  after  the  publication  of  his  'Nisi  Prius  Re- 
ports,' he  on  circuit  successfully  defended  a  prisoner 
charged  with  a  criminal  offence ;  and  how,  whilst  the  suc- 
cess of  his  advocacy  was  still  quickening  his  pulses,  he 
discovered  that  his  late  client,  with  whom  he  held  a  con- 
fidential conversation,  had  contrived  to  relieve  him  of  his 
pocket-book,  full  of  bank-notes.  As  soon  as  the  presid- 
ing judge,  Lord  Chief  Baron  Macdonald,  heard  of  the 
mishap  of  the  reporting  barrister,  he  exclaimed,  "  What ! 
does  Mr.  Campbell  think  that  no  one  is  entitled  to  take 
notes  in  court  except  himself  ? " 

By  the  urbane  placidity  which  marked  the  utterance 
of  his  happiest  speeches,  Sir  Nicholas  Bacon  often  re- 
called to  his  hearers  the  courteous  'easiness  of  More's 
repartees.  Keeping  his  own  pace  in  society,  as  well  as 
in  the  Court  of  Chancery,  neither  satire  nor  importunity 
could  ruffle  or  confuse  him.  When  Elizabeth,  looking 
disdainfully  at  his  modest  country  mansion,  told  him 
that  the  place  was  toe  small,  he  answered  with  the  flattery 
of  gratitude,  "  Not  so,  madam,  your  highness  has  made 
me  too  great  for  my  house."  Leicester  having  suddenly 
asked  him  his  opinion  of  two  aspirants  for  court  favor, 
he  responded  on  the  spur  of  the  moment,  "By  my  troth, 
my  lord,  the  one  is  a  grave  councillor  :  the  other  is  a 
proper  young  man,  and  so  he  will  be  as  long  as  he  lives." 
To  the  queen,  who  pressed  him  for  his  sentiments  respect- 
ing the  effect  of  monopolies — a  delicate  question  for  a 


320  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

subject  to  speak  his  mind  upon — he  answered,  with  con- 
ciliatory lightness,  "  Madam,  will  you  have  me  speak  the 
truth  ?  Licentia  omnes  deteriores  sumus."  In  court  he 
used  to  say,  "  Let  us  stay  a  little,  that  we  may  have  done 
the  sooner."  But  notwithstanding  his  deliberation  and 
the  stutter  that  hindered  his  utterances,  he  could  be 
quicker  than  the  quickest,  and  sharper  than  the  most 
acrid,  as  the  loquacious  barrister  discovered  who  was 
suddenly  checked  in  a  course  of  pert  talkativeness  by  this 
tart  remark  from  the  stammering  Lord  Keeper:  "  There 
is  a  difference  between  you  and  me, — for  me  it  is  a  pain 
to  s-speak,  for  you  a  pain  to  hold  your  tongue."  That 
the  familiar  story  of  his  fatal  attack  of  cold  is  altogether 
true  one  cannot  well  believe,  for  it  seems  highly  im- 
probable that  the  Lord  Keeper,  in  his  seventieth  year, 
would  have  sat  down  to  be  shaved  near  an  open  window 
in  the  month  of  February.  But  though  the  anecdote 
may  not  be  historically  exact,  it  may  be  accepted  as  a 
faithful  portraiture  of  his  more  stately  and  severely 
courteous  humor.  "Why  did  you  suffer  me  to  sleep 
thus  exposed  ?"  asked  the  Lord  Keeper,  waking  in  a  fit 
of  shivering  from  slumber  into  which  his  servant  had 
allowed  him  to  drop,  as  he  sat  to  be  shaved  in  a  place 
where  there  was  a  sharp  current  of  air.  "  Sir,  I  durst 
not  disturb  you,"  answered  the  punctilious  valet,  with  a 
lowly  obeisance.  Having  eyed  him  for  a  few  seconds, 
Sir  Nicholas  rose  and  said,  "  By  your  civility  I  lose  my 
life."  "Whereupon  the  Lord  Keeper  retired  to  the  bed 
from  which  he  never  rose. 

Amongst  Elizabethan  Judges  who  aimed  at  sprightliness 
on  the  Bench,  Hatton  merits  a  place ;  but  there  is  reason 
to  think  that  the  idlers,  who  crowded  his  court  to  admire 
the  foppishness  of  his  judicial  costume,  did  not  get  one 
really  good  mot  from  his  lips  to  every  ten  bright  sayings 
that  came  from  the  clever  banisters  practising  before 


Mirth.  321 

him.  One  of  the  best  things  attributed  to  him  is  a  pun. 
In  a  case  concerning  the  limits  of  certain  land,  the 
counsel  on  one  side  having  remarked  with  explanatory 
emphasis,  "We  he  on  this  side,  my  Lord;  and  the 
counsel  on  the  other  side  having  interposed  with  equal 
vehemence,  "  We  he  on  this  side,  my  Lord," — the  Lord 
Chancellor  leaned  backwards,  and  dryly  observed,  "If 
you  he  on  both  sides,  whom  am  I  to  believe?"  In 
Elizabethan  England  the  pun  was  as  great  a  power  in 
the  jocularity  of  the  law-courts  as  it  is  at  present;  the 
few  surviving  witticisms  that  are  supposed  to  exemplify 
Egerton's  lighter-mood  on  the  bench,  being  for  the  most 
part  feeble  attempts  at  punning.  For  instance,  when  he 
was  asked,  during  his  tenure  of  the  Mastership  of  the 
Rolls,  to  commit  a  cause,  i.e.,  to  refer  it  to  a  Master  in 
Chancery,  he  used  to  answer,  "What  has  the  cause  done 
that  it  should  be  committed?"  It  is  also  recorded  of 
him  that,  when  he  was  asked  for  his  signature  to  a 
petition  of  which  he  disapproved,  he  would  tear  it  in 
pieces  with  both  hands,  saying,  "  You  want  my  hand  to 
this  ?    You  shall  have  it;  aye,  and  both  my  hands,  too." 

Of  Egerton's  student  days  a  story  is  extant,  which  has 
merits,  independent  of  its  truth  or  want  of  truth.  The 
hostess  of  a  Smithfield  tavern  had  received  a  sum  of 
money  from  three  graziers,  in  trust  for  them,  and  on 
engagement  to  restore  it  to  them  on  their  joint  demand. 
Soon  after  this  transfer,  one  of  the  co-depositors,  fraudu- 
lently representing  himself  to  be  acting  as  the  agent  of  the 
other  two,  induced  the  old  lady  to  give  him  possession  of 
the  whole  of  the  money — and  thereupon  absconded. 
Forthwith  the  other  two  depositors  brought  an  action 
against  the  landlady,  and  were  on  the  point  of  gaining  a 
decision  in  their  favor,  when  young  Egerton,  who  had 
been  taking  notes  of  the  trial,  rose  as  amicus  curies,  and 
argued,  "  This  money,  by  the  contract,  was  to  be  re- 
14*    • 


322  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

turned  to  three,  but  two  only  sue; — where  is  the  third? 
let  him  appear  with  the  others;  till  then  the  money 
cannot  be  demanded  from  her."  Nonsuit  for  the  plaintiffs 
— for  the  young  student  a  hum  of  commendation. 

Many  of  the  pungent  sayings  current  in  Westminster 
Hall  at  the  present  time,  and  attributed  to  eminent 
advocates  who  either  are  still  upon  the  forensic  stage,  or 
have  recently  withdrawn  from  it,  were  common  jests 
amongst  the  lawyers  of  the  seventeenth  century.  What 
law-student  now  eating  dinners  at  the  Temple  has  not 
heard  the  story  of  Sergeant  Wilkins,  who,  on  drinking  a 
pot  of  stout  in  the  middle  of  the  day,  explained  that,  as 
he  was  about  to  appear  in  court,  he  thought  it  right  to 
fuddle  his  brain  down  to  the  intellectual  standard  of  a 
British  jury.  This  merry  thought,  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  since,  was  currently  attributed  to  Sir  John 
Millicent,  of  Cambridgeshire,  of  whom  it  is  recorded — 
"  being  asked  how  he  did  conforme  himselfe  to  the  grave 
justices  his  brothers,  when  they  met,  '  Why,  in  faithe/ 
sayes  he,  '  I  have  no  way  but  to  drinke  myself  downe  to 
the  capacitie  of  the  Bench.'  " 

Another  witticism,  currently  attributed  to  various  re- 
cent celebrities,  but  usually  fathered  upon  Bichard  Brins- 
ley  Sheridan — on  whose  reputation  have  been  heaped  the 
brilliant  mots  of  many  a  speaker  whom  he  never  heard, 
and  the  indiscretions  of  many  a  sinner  whom  he  never 
knew — is  certainly  as  old  as  Shaftesbury's  bright  and  un- 
principled career.  When  Charles  II.  exclaimed,  "Shaftes- 
bury, you  are  the  most  profligate  man  in  my  dominions," 
the  reckless  Chancellor  answered,  "  Of  a  subject,  sir,  I  be- 
lieve I  am."  It  is  likely  enough  that  Shaftesbury  merely 
repeated  the  witticism  of  a  previous  courtier  ;  but  it  is  cer- 
tain that  Sheridan  was  not  the  first  to  strike  out  the  pun. 

In  this  place  let  a  contradiction  be  given  to  a  baseless 
story,  which  exalts  Sir  William  Follett's  reputation  for 


Mirth.  323 

intellectual  readiness  and  argumentative  ability.  The 
story  runs,  that  early  in  the  January  of  1845,  whilst 
George  Stephenson,  Dean  Buckland,  and  Sir  William 
Follett  were  Sir  Eobert  Peel's  guests  at  Drayton  Manor, 
Dean  Buckland  vanquished  the  engineer  in  a  discussion 
on  a  geological  question.  The  next  morning,  George 
Stephenson  was  walking  in  the  gardens  of  Drayton  Manor  , 
before  breakfast,  when  Sir  William  Follett  accosted  him, 
and  sitting  down  in  an  arbor  asked  for  the  facts  of  the 
argument.  Having  quickly  'picked  up  the  case,'  the 
lawyer  joined  Sir  Robert  Peel's  guests  at  breakfast,  and 
amused  them  by  leading  the  dean  back  to  the  dispute  of 
the  previous  day,  and  overthrowing  his  fallacies  by  a  skil- 
ful use  of  the  same  arguments  which  the  self-taught 
engineer  had  employed  with  such  ill  effect.  "  What  do 
you  say.  Mr.  Stephenson  ?"  asked  Sir  Eobert  Peel,  en- 
joying the  dean's  discomfiture.  "  Why,"  returned  George 
Stephenson,  "I  only  say  this,  that  of  all  the  powers 
above  and  under  earth,  there  seems  to  me  no  power  so 
great  as  the  gift  of  the  gab."  This  is  the  story.  But 
there  are  facts  which  contradict  it.  The  only  visit  paid 
by  George  Stephenson  to  Drayton  Manor  was  made  in 
/the  December  of  1844,  not  the  January  of  1845.  The 
guests  (invited  for  Dec.  14,  1844),  were  Lord  Talbot, 
Lord  Aylesford,  the  Bishop  of  Lichfield,  Dr.  Buckland, 
Dr.  Lyon  Playfair,  Professor  Owen,  George  Stephenson, 
Mr.  Smith  of  Dean3t  Dn,  and  Professor  Wheatstone.  Sir 
William  Follett  was  not  of  the  party,  and  did  not  set 
foot  within  Drayton  Manor  during  George  Stephenson's 
visit  there.  Of  this,  Professor  Wheatstone  (who  fur- 
nished the  present  writer  with  these  particulars),  is  cer- 
tain. Moreover,  it  is  not  to  be  believed  that  Sir  Wil- 
liam Follett,  an  overworked  invalid  (who  died  in  the 
June  of  1845  of  the  pulmonary  disease  under  which  he 
had  suffered  for  years),  would  sit  in  an   arbor  before 


324  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

breakfast  on  a  winter's  morning  to  hold  debate  with  a 
companion  on  any  subject.  The  story  is  a  revival  of  an  an- 
ecdote first  told  long  before  George  Stephenson  was  born. 

In  lists  of  legal  facetiae  the  habit  of  punning  is  not 
more  noticeable  than  the  prevalent  unamiability  of  the 
jests.  Advocates  are  intellectual  gladiators,  using  their 
tongues  as  soldiers  of  fortune  use  their  swords  ;  and  when 
they  speak,  it  is  to  vanquish  an  adversary.  Antagonism 
is  an  unavoidable  condition  of  their  existence  ;  and  this 
incessant  warfare  gives  a  merciless  asperity  to  their  lan- 
guage, even  when  it  does  not  infuse  their  hearts  with  bit- 
terness. Duty  enjoins  the  barrister  to  leave  no  word  un- 
said that  can  help  his  client,  and  encourages  him  to  per- 
plex by  satire,  baffle  by  ridicule,  or  silence  by  sarcasm,  all 
who  may  oppose  him  with  statements  that  cannot  be  dis- 
proved, or  arguments  that  cannot  be  upset  by  reason. 
That  which  duty  bids  him  do,  practice  enables  him  to  do 
with  terrible  precision  and  completeness  ;  and  in  many  a 
case  the  caustic  tone,  assumed  at  the  outset  as  a  profes- 
sional weapon,  becomes  habitual,  and,  without  the  speak- 
er's knowledge,  gives  more  pain  within  his  home  than  in 
"Westminster  Hall. 

Some  of  the  well-known  witticisms  attributed  to  great 
lawyers  are  so  brutally  personal  and  malignant,  that  no 
man  possessing  any  respect  for  human  nature  can  read 
them  without  endeavoring  to  regard  them  as  mere  bio- 
graphic fabrications.  It  is  recorded  of  Charles  Yorke 
that,  after  his  election  to  serve  as  member  for  the  Uni- 
versity of  Cambridge,  he,  in  accordance  with  etiquette, 
made  a  round  of  calls  on  members  of  senate,  giving  them 
personal  thanks  for  their  votes  ;  and  that  on  coming  to 
the  presence  of  a  supporter — an  old  '  fellow '- knowr<.  as 
the  ugliest  man  in  Cambridge — he  addressed  him  thus, 
after  smiling  '  an  aside '  to  a  knot  of  bystanders — "  Sir, 
I  have  reason  to  be  thankful  to  my  friends  in  general  ; 


Mirth.  325 

but  I  confess  myself  under  particular  obligation  to  you 
for  the  very  remarkable  countenance  you  have  shown  me 
on  this  occasion."  There  is  no  doubt  that  Charles 
Yorke  could  make  himself  unendurably  offensive  ;  it  is 
just  credible  that  without  a  thought  of  their  double 
meaning  he  uttered  the  words  attributed  to  him  ;  but  it 
is  not  to  be  believed  that  he — an  English  gentleman — 
thus  intentionally  insulted  a  man  who  had  rendered  him 
a  service. 

A  story  far  less  offensive  than  the  preceding  anecdote, 
but  in  one  point  similar  to  it,  is  told  of  Judge  Fortescue- 
Aland  (subsequently  Lord  Fortescue),  and  a  counsel. 
Sir  John  Fortescue-Aland  was  disfigured  by  a  nose  which 
was  purple,  and  hideously  misshapen  by  morbid  growth. 
Having  checked  a  ready  counsel  with  the  needlessly  harsh 
observation,  "  Brother,  brother,  you  are  handling  the 
case  in  a  very  lame  manner,"  the  angry  advocate  gave 
vent  to  his  annoyance  by  saying,  with  a  perfect  appear- 
ance of  sang-froid,  "  Pardon  me,  my  lord ;  have  patience 
with  me,  and  I  will  do  my  best  to  make  the  case  as  plain 
as — as — the  nose  on  your  lordship's  face."  In  this  case 
the  personality  was  uttered  in  hot  blood,  by  a  man  who 
deemed  himself  to  be  striking  the  enemy  of  his  profes- 
sional reputation. 

-  If  they  were  not  supported  by  incontrovertible  testi- 
mony, the  admirers  of  the  great  Sir  Edward  Coke  would 
reject  as  spurious  many  of  the  overbearing  rejoinders 
which  escaped  his  lips  in  courts  of  justice.  His  tone  in 
his  memorable  altercation  with  Bacon  at  the  bar  of  the 
Court  of  Exchequer  speaks  ill  for  the  courtesy  of  English 
advocates  in  Elizabeth's  reign  ;  and  to  any  student  who 
can  appreciate  the  dignified  formality  and  punctilious 
politeness  that  characterized  English  gentlemen  in  the 
old  time,  i^  is  matter  of  perplexity  how  a  man  of  Coke's 
learning,  capacity,  and  standing,  could  have  marked  his 


326  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

contempt  for  '  Cowell's  Interpreter,'  by  designating  the 
author  in  open  court  Dr.  Cowheel.  Scarcely  in  better 
taste  were  the  coarse  personalities  with  which,  as  Attorney 
General,  he  deluged  Garnet  the  Jesuit,  whom  he  described 
as  "a  Doctor  of  Jesuits  ;  that  is,  a  Doctor  of  six  D's — 
as  Dissimulation,  Deposing  of  princes,  Disposing  of 
kingdoms,  Daunting  and  Deterring  of  Subjects,  and 
Destruction." 

In  comparatively  recent  times  few  judges  surpassed 
Thurlow  in  overbearing  insolence  to  the  bar.  To  a  few 
favorites,  such  as  John  Scott  and  Kenyon,  he  could  be 
consistently  indulgent,  although  even  to  them  his  patron- 
age was  often  disagreeably  contemptuous  ;  but  to  those 
who  provoked  his  displeasure  by  a  perfectly  independent 
and  fearless  bearing  he  was  a  malignant  persecutor.  For 
instance,  in  his  animosity  to  Richard  Pepper  Arden 
(Lord  Alvanley),  he  often  forgot  his  duty  as  a  judge  and 
his  manners  as  a  gentleman.  John  Scott,  on  one  occasion, 
rising  in  the  Court  of  Chancery  to  address  the  court  after 
Arden,  who  was  his  leader  in  the  cause,  and  had  made  an 
unusually  able  speech,  Lord  Thurlow  had  the  indecency 
to  say,  "  Mr.  Scott,  I  am  glad  to  find  that  you  are  en- 
gaged in  the  cause,  for  I  now  stand  some  chance  of  know- 
ing something  about  the  matter."  To  the  Chancellor's 
habitual  incivility  and  insolence  it  is  allowed  that  Arden 
always  responded  with  dignity  and  self-command,  hu- 
miliating his  powerful  and  ungenerous  adversary  by  in- 
variable good-breeding.  Once,  through  inadvertence,  he 
showed  disrespect  to  the  surly  Chancellor,  and  then  he 
instantly  gave  utterance  to  a  cordial  apology,  which  Thur- 
low was  not  generous  enough  to  accept  with  appropriate 
courtesy.  In  the  excitement  of  professional  altercation 
with  counsel  respecting  the  ages  of  certain  persons  con- 
cerned in  a  suit,  he  committed  the  indecorum  of  saying 
aloud,  "  I'll  lay  you  a  bottle  of  wine."     Ever  on  the  alert 


Mirth.  327 

to  catch  his  enemy  tripping,  Thurlow's  eye  brightened  as 
his  ear  caught  the  careless  words  ;  and  in  another  instant 
he  assumed  a  look  of  indignant  disgust.  But  before  the 
irate  judge  could  speak,  Arden  exclaimed,  "My  lord,  I 
beg  your  lordship's  pardon  ;  I  really  forgot  where  I  was.1' 
Had  Thurlow  bowed  a  grave  acceptance  of  the  apology, 
Arden  would  have  suffered  somewhat  from  the  misadven- 
ture ;  but  unable  to  keep  his  abusive  tongue  quiet,  the 
'  Great  Bear '  growled  out,  in  allusion  to  the  offender's 
Welsh  judgeship,  "  You  thought  you  were  in  your  own 
court,  I  presume." 

More  laughable,  but  not  more  courteous,  was  the 
same  Chancellor's  speech  to  a  solicitor  who  had  made  a 
series  of  statements  in  a  vain  endeavor  to  convince  his 
lordship  of  a  certain  person's  death.  "  Really,  my  lord," 
at  last  the  solicitor  exclaimed,  goaded  into  a  fury  by 
Thurlow's  repeated  ejaculations  of  "That's  no  proof  of 
the  man's  death;"  "Really,  my  lord,  it  is  very  hard, 
and  it  is  not  right  that  you  won't  believe  me.  I  saw  the 
man  dead  in  his  coffin.  My  lord,  I  tell  you  he  was  my 
client,  and  he  is  dead."  "  No  wonder,"  retorted  Thurlow, 
with  a  grunt  and  a  sneer,  "  since  he  was  your  client.  Why 
did  you  not  tell  me  that  sooner?  It  would  kill  me  to 
have  such  a  fellow  as  you  for  my  attorney."  That  this 
great  lawyer  could  thus  address  a  respectable  gentleman 
is  less  astonishing  when  it  is  remembered,  that  he  once 
horrified  a  party  of  aristocratic  visitors  at  a  country 
house  by  replying  to  a  lady  who  pressed  him  to  take 
some  grapes,  "Grapes,  madam,  grapes!  Did  not  I  say 
a  minute  ago  that  J  had  the  gripes  !"  Once  this  ungentle 
lawyer  was  fairly  worsted  in  a  verbal  conflict  by  an  Irish 
pavior.  On  crossing  the  threshold  of  his  Ormond  Street 
house  one  morning,  the  Chancellor  was  incensed  at  seeing 
a  load  of  paving-stones  placed  before  his  door.  Singling 
out  the  tallest  of  a  score  of  Irish   workmen  who  wers 


328  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

repairing  the  thoroughfare,  he  poured  upon  him  one  of 
those  torrents  of  curses  with  which  his  most  insolent 
speeches  were  usually  preluded,  and  then  told  the  man 
to  move  the  stones  away  instantly.  ""Where  shall  I  take 
them  to,  your  honor  ?"  the  pavior  inquired.  From  the 
Chancellor  another  volley  of  blasphemous  abuse,  ending 
with,  "  You  lousy  scoundrel,  take  them  to  hell ! — do  you 
hear  me  ?"  "  Have  a  care,  your  honor,"  answered  the 
workman,  with  quiet  drollery,  "  don't  you  think  now  that 
if  I  took  'em  to  the  other  place  your  honor  would  be  less 
likely  to  fall  over  them  ?" 

Thurlow's  incivility  to  the  solicitor  reminds  us  of  the 
cruel  answer  given  by  another  great  lawyer  to  a  country 
attorney,  who,  through  fussy  anxiety  for.  a  client's  in- 
terests, committed  a  grave  breach  of  professional  etiquette. 
Let  this  attorney  be  called  Mr.  Smith,  and  let  it  be  known 
that  Mr.  Smith,  having  come  up  to  London  from  a 
secluded  district  of  a  remote  country,  was  present  at  a 
consultation  of  counsellors  learned  in  the  law  upon  his 
client's  cause.  At  this  interview,  the  leading  counsel  in 
the  cause,  the  Attorney  General  of  the  time,  was  present 
and  delivered  his  final  opinion  with  characteristic  clear- 
ness and  precision.  The  consultation  over,  the  country 
attorney  retreated  to  the  Hummums  Hotel,  Covent 
Garden,  and,  instead  of  sleeping  over  the  statements  made 
at  the  conference,  passed  a  wretched  and  wakeful  night, 
harassed  by  distressing  fears,  and  agitated  by  a  convic- 
tion that  the  Attorney  General  had  overlooked  the  most 
important  point  of  the  case.  Early  next  day,  Mr.  Smith, 
without  appointment,  was  at  the  great  counsellor's  cham- 
bers, and  by  vehement  importunity,  as  well  as  a  liberal 
donation  to  the  clerk,  succeeded  in  forcing  his  way  to  the 
advocate's  presence.  "  Well,  Mis-ter  Smith,"  observed 
the  Attorney  General  to  his  visitor,  turning  away  from 
one  of  his  devilling  juniors,  who  chanced  to  be  closeted 


Mirth.  829 

with  him  at  the  moment  of  the  intrusion,  "what  may 
you  want  to  say  ?  Be  quick,  for  I  am  pressed  for  time." 
Notwithstanding  the  urgency  of  his  engagements,  he 
spoke  with  a  slowness  which,  no  less  than  the  suspicious 
rattle  of  his  voice,  indicated  the  fervor  of  displeasure. 
"Sir  Caustieus  Witherett,  I  trust  you  will  excuse  my 
troubling  you ;  but,  sir,  after  our  yesterday's  interview,  I 
went  to  my  hotel,  the  Hummums,  in  Covent  Garden, 
and  have  spent  the  evening  and  all  night  turning  over 
my  client's  case  in  my  mind,  and  the  more  I  turn  the 
matter  over  in  my  mind,  the  more  reason  I  see  to  fear 
that  you  have  not  given  one  point  due  consideration." 
A  pause,  during  which  Sir  Caustieus  steadily  eyed  his 
visitor,  who  began  to  feel  strangely  embarrassed  under 
the  searching  scrutiny:  and  then — "State  the  point, 
Mis-ter  Smith,  but  be  brief.".  Having  heard  the  point 
stated,  Sir  Caustieus  Witherett  inquired, "  Is  that  all  you 
wish  to  say?"  "All,  sir — all,"  replied  Mr.  Smith; 
adding  nervously,  "  And  I  trust  you  will  excuse  me  for 
troubling  you  about  the  matter;  but,  sir,  I  could  not 
sleep  a  wink  last  night;  all  through  the  night  I  was 
turning  this  matter  over  in  my  mind."  A  glimpse  of 
silence.  Sir  Caustieus  rose  and  standing  over  his  victim 
made  his  final  speech — "  Mis-ter  Smith,  if  you  take  my 
advice,  given  with  sincere  commiseration  for  your  state, 
you  will  without  delay  return  to  the  tranquil  village  in 
which  you  habitually  reside.  In  the  quietude  of  your 
accustomed  scenes  you  will  have  leisure  to  turn  this  mat- 
ter over  in  what  you  are  pleased  to  call  your  mind.  And 
•I  am  willing  to  hope  that  your  mind  will  recover  its 
usual  serenity.  Mr.  Smith,  I  wish  you  a  very  good 
morning." 

Legal  biography  abounds  with  ghastly  stories  that 
illustrate  the  insensibility  with  which  the  hanging  judges 
in  past  generations  used  to  don  the  black  cap  jauntily, 


330  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

and  smile  at  the  wretched  beings  whom  they  sentenced 
to  death.  Perhaps  of  all  such  anecdotes  the  most 
thoroughly  sickening  is  that  which  describes  the  conduct 
of  Jeffreys,  when,  as  Recorder  of  London,  he  passed 
sentence  of  death  on  his  old  and  familiar  friend,  Richard 
Langhorn,  the  Catholic  barrister — one  di"  the  victims  of 
the  Popish  Plot  phrensy.  It  is  recorded  that  Jeffreys, 
not  content  with  consigning  his  friend  to  a  traitor's 
doom,  malignantly  reminded  him  of  their  former  inter- 
course, and  with  devilish  ridicule  admonished  him  to 
prepare  his  soul  for  the  next  world.  The  authority 
which  gives  us  this  story  adds,  that  by  thus  insulting  a 
wretched  gentleman  and  personal  associate,  Jeffreys,  in- 
stead of  rousing  the  disgust  of  his  auditors,  elicted  their 
enthusiastic  applause. 

In  a  note  to  a  passage  in  one  of  the  Waverley  Novels, 
Scott  tells  a  story  of  an  old  Scotch  judge,  who,  as  an 
enthusiastic  chess-player,  was  much  mortified  by  the  suc- 
cess of  an  ancient  friend,  who  invariably  beat  him  when 
they  tried  their  powers  at  the  beloved  game.  After  a 
time  the  humiliated  chess-player  had  his  day  of  triumph. 
His  conqueror  happened  to  commit  murder,  and  it  be- 
came the  judge's  not  altogether  painful  duty  to  pass  upon 
him  the  sentence  of  the  law.  Having  in  due  form  and 
with  suitable  solemnity  commended  his  soul  to  the  divine 
mercy,  he,  after  a  brief  pause,  assumed  his  ordinary  col- 
loquial tone  of  voice,  and  nodding  humorously  to  his  old 
friend,  observed — "  And  noo,  Jammie,  I  think  ye'll  alloo 
that  I  hae  checkmated  you  for  ance." 

Of  all  the  bloodthirsty  wearers  of  the  ermine,  no  one, 
since  the  opening  of  the  eighteenth  century,  has  fared 
worse  than  Sir  Francis  Page — the  virulence  of  whose 
tongue  and  the  cruelty  of  whose  nature  were  marks  for 
successive  satirists.  In  one  of  his  Imitations  of  Horace, 
Pope  says — 


Mirth.  331 

•*  Slanderer,  poison  dread  from  Delia's  rage, 
Hard  words  or  hanging,  if  your  judge  be  Page." 

In  the   same   spirit  the  poet  penned   the  lines  of  the 
'  Dunciad ' — 

"  Mortality,  by  her  false  guardians  drawn, 
Chicane  in  furs,  and  Casuistry  in  lawn, 
Gasps,  as  they  straighten  at  each  end  the  cord, 
And  dies,  when  Dulness  gives  her the  Sword." 

Powerless  to  feign  insensibility  to  the  blow,  Sir  Francis 
openly  fitted  this  black  cap  to  his  dishonored  head  by 
sending  his  clerk  to"  expostulate  with  the  poet.  The  ill- 
chosen  ambassador  performed  his  mission  by  showing 
that,  in  Sir  Francis's  opinion,  the  whole  passage  would 
be  sheer  nonsense,  unless  '  Page '  were  inserted  in  the 
vacant  place.  Johnson  and  Savage  took  vengeance  on 
the  judge  for  the  judicial  misconduct  which  branded  the 
latter  poet  a  murderer;  and  Fielding,  in  'Tom  Jones,' 
illustrating  by  a  current  story  the  offensive  levity  of  the 
judge's  demeanor  at  capital  trials,  makes  him  thus  retort 
on  a  horse-stealer :  "Ay!  thou  art  a  lucky  fellow;  I 
have  traveled  the^  circuit  these  forty  years,  and  never 
found  a  horse  in  my  life;  but  I'll  tell  thee  what,  friend, 
thou  wast  more  lucky  than  thou  didst  know  of  ;  for  thou 
didst  not  only  find  a  horse,  but  a  halter  too,  I  promise 
thee."  This  scandal  to  his  professional  order  was  per- 
mitted to  insult  the  humane  sentiments  of  the  nation  for 
a  long  period.  Born  in  1661,  he  died  in  1741,  whilst  he 
was  still  occupying  a  judicial  place;  and  it  is  said  of  him, 
that  in  his  last  year  he  pointed  the  ignominious  story  of 
his  existence  by  a  speech  that  soon  ran  the  round  of  the 
courts.  In  answer  to  an  inquiry  for  his  health,  the 
octogenarian  judge  observed,  "  My  dear  sir — -you  see  how 
it  fares  with  me;  I  just  manage  to  keep  hanging  on, 
hanging  on."    This  story  is  ordinarily  told  as  though  the 


832  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

old  man  did  not  see  the  unfavorable  significance  of  his 
words;  but  it  is  probable  that  he  uttered  them  wittingly 
and  with  a  sneer — in  the  cynicism  and  shamelessness  of 
old  age. 

A  man  of  finer  stuff  and  of  various  merits,  but  still 
famous  as  a  '  hanging  judge,'  was  Sir  Francis  Buller, 
who  also  made  himself  odious  to  the  gentler  sex  by  main- 
taining that  husbands  might  flog  their  wives,  if  the  chas- 
tisement were  administered  with  a  stick  not  thicker  than 
the  operator's  thumb.  But  the  severity  to  criminals, 
which  gave  him  a  place  amongst  hanging  judges,  was  not 
a  consequence  of  natural  cruelty.  Inability  to  devise  a 
satisfactory  system  of  secondary  punishments,  and  a 
genuine  conviction  that  ninety-nine  out  of  every  hundred 
culprits  were  incorrigible,  caused  him  to  maintain  that 
the  gallows-tree  was  the  most  efficacious  as 'well  as  the 
cheapest  instrument  that  could  be  invented  for  protecting 
society  against -malefactors.  Another  of  his  stern  dicta 
was,  that  previous  good  character  was  a  reason  for  in- 
creasing rather  than  a  reason  for  lessening  a  culprit's 
punishment;  "For,"  he  argued,  "the  longer  a  prisoner 
has  enjoyed  the  good  opinion  of  the  world,  the  less  are 
the  excuses  for  his  misdeeds,  and  the  more  injurious  is 
his  conduct  to  public  morality." 

In  contrast  to  these  odious  stories  of  hanging  judges 
are  some  anecdotes  of  great  men,  who  abhorred  the  atro- 
cities of  our  penal  system,  long  before  the  worst  of  them 
were  swept  away  by  reform.  Lord  Mansfield  has  never 
been  credited  with  lively  sensibilities,  but  his  humanity 
was  so  shocked  by  the  bare  thought  of  killing  a  man  for 
committing  a  trifling  theft,  that  he  on  one  occasion 
ordered  a  jury  to  find  that  a  stolen  trinket  was  of  less 
value  than  forty  shillings — in  order  that  the  thief  might 
escape  the  capital  sentence.  The  prosecutor,  a  dealer  in 
jewelry,  was  so  mortified  by  the  judge's  leniency,  that 


Mirth.  333 

he  exclaimed,  "What,  my  lord,  my  golden  trinket  not 
worth  forty  shillings  ?  "Why,  the  fashion  alone  cost  me 
twice  the  money!"  Removing  his  glance  from  the  vin- 
dictive tradesman,  Lord  Mansfield  turned  towards  the 
jury,  and  said,  with  solemn  gravity,  "  As  we  stand  in  need 
of  God's  mercy,  gentlemen,  let  us  not  hang  a  man  for 
fashion's  sake." 

Tenderness  of  heart  was  even  less  notable  in  Ken- 
yon  than  in  Murray;  but  Lord  Mansfield's  successor  was 
at  least  on  one  occasion  stirred  by  apathetic  consequence 
of  the  bloody  law  against  persons  found  guilty  of  trivial 
theft.  On  the  Home  Circuit,  having  passed  sentence  of 
death  on  a  poor  woman  who  had  stolen  property  to  the 
value  of  forty  shillings  in  a  dwelling-house,  Lord  Kenyon 
saw  the  prisoner  drop  lifeless  in  the  dock,  just  as  he 
ceased  to  speak.  Instantly  the  Chief  Justice  sprang  to 
his  feet,  and  screamed  in  a  shrill  tone,  "I  don't  mean  to 

hang  you — do  you  hear! — don't  you  hear? — Good ! 

will  nobody  tell  her  that  I  don't  mean  to  hang  her  ?" 

One  of  the  humorous  aspects  of  a  repulsive  subject  is 
seen  in  the  curiosity  and  fastidiousness  of  prisoners  on 
trial  for  capital  offences  with  regard  to  the  professional 
status  of  the  judges  who  try  them.  A  sheep-stealer  of 
the  old  bloody  days  liked  that  sentence  should  be  passed 
upon  him  by  a  Chief  Justice;  and  in  our  own  time  mur- 
derers awaiting  execution,  sometimes  grumble  at  the  un- 
fairness of  their  trials,  because  they  have  been  tried  by 
judges  of  inferior  degree.  Lord  Campbell  mentions  the 
case  of  a  sergeant,  who,  whilst  acting  as  Chief  Justice 
Abbott's  deputy,  on  the  Oxford  circuit,  was  reminded  that 
he  was  'merely  a  temporary'  by  the  prisoner  in  the 
dock.  Being  asked  in  the  usual  way  if  he  had  aught  to 
say  why  sentence  of  death  should  not  be  passed  upon 
him,  the  prisoner  answered — "  Yes ;  I  have  been  tried 
before  a  journeyman  judge." 


334  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

CHAPTEE  XL. 

HUMOROUS     STORIES. 

ALIKE  commendable  for  its  subtlety  and  inoffensive 
humor  was  the  pleasantry  with  which  young 
Philip  Yorke  (afterwards  Lord  Hardwicke),  answered 
Sir  Lyttleton  Powys's  banter  on  the  Western  Circuit. 
An  amiable  and  upright,  but  far  from  brilliant  judge, 
Sir  Lyttleton  had  a  few  pet  phrases — amongst  them,  "  I 
humbly  conceive,"  and  "Look,  do  you  see" — which  he 
sprinkled  over  his  judgments  and  colloquial  talk  with 
ridiculous  profuseness.  Surprised  at  Yorke's  sudden  rise 
into  lucrative  practice,  this  most  gentlemanlike  worthy 
was  pleased  to  account  for  the  unusual  success  by  main- 
taining that  young  Mr.  Yorke  must  have  written  a  law- 
book, which  had  brought  him  early  into  favor  with  the 
inferior  branch  of  the  profession.  "  Mr.  Yorke,"  said  the 
venerable  justice,  whilst  the  barristers  were  sitting  over 
their  wine  at  a  •  judges'  dinner,'  "  I  cannot  well  account 
for  your  having  so  much  business,  considering  how  short 
a  time  you  have  been  at  the  bar:  I  humbly  conceive 
you  must  have  published  something;  for  look  you,  do 
you  see,  there  is  scarcely  a  cause  in  court  but  you  are 
employed  in  it  on  one  side  or  the  other.  I  should 
therefore  be  glad  to  know,  Mr.  Yorke,  do  you  see, 
whether  this  be  the  case."  Playfully  denying  that  he 
possessed  any  celebrity  as  a  writer  on  legal  matters, 
Yorke,  with  an  assumption  of  candor,  admitted  that 
he  had  some  thoughts  of  lightening  the  labors  of  law- 
students  by  turning  Coke  upon  Littleton  into  verse. 
Indeed,  he  confessed  that  he  had  already  begun  the 
work  of  versification.  Not  seeing  the  nature  of  the 
reply,  Sir  Lyttleton  Powys  treated  the  droll  fancy  as  a 


Mirth,  335 

serious  project,  and  insisted  that  the  author  should  give 
a  specimen  of  the  style  of  his  contemplated  work. 
Whereupon  the  young  barrister — not  pausing  to  remind 
a  company  of  lawyers  of  the  words  of  the  original: 
"  Tenant  in  fee  simple  is  he  which  hath  lands  or  tene- 
ments to  hold  to  him  and  his  heirs  for  ever " — recited 
the  lines — 

"  He  that  holdeth  Ms  lands  in  fee 

Need  neither  to  quake  nor  quiver, 
I  humbly  conceive:  for  look,  do  you  see 

They  are  his  and  his  heirs'  forever." 

The  mimicry  of  voice  being  not  less  perfect  than  the 
verbal  imitation,  Yorke's  hearers  were  convulsed  with 
laughter,  but  so  unconscious  was  Sir  Lyttleton  of  the 
ridicule  which  he  had  incurred,  that  on  subsequently 
encountering  Yorke  in  London,  he  asked  how  "  that 
translation  of  Coke  upon  Littleton  was  getting  on." 
Sir  Lyttleton  died  in  1732,  and  exactly  ten  years  after- 
wards appeared  the  first  edition  of  'The  Reports  of 
Sir  Edward  Coke,  Knt.,  in  Verse'— a  work  which  its 
author  may  have  been  inspired  to  undertake  by  Philip 
Yorke's  proposal  to  versify  'Coke  on  Littleton.' 

Had  Yorke's  project  been  carried  out,  lawyers  would 
have  a  large  supply  of  that  comic  but  sound  literature 
of  which  Sir  James  Burrow's  Reports  contain  a  specimen 
in  the  following  poetical  version  of  Chief  Justice  Pratt's 
memorable  decision  with  regard  to  a  woman  of  English 
birth,  who  was  the  widow  of  a  foreigner: 

"  A  woman  having  settlement 
Married  a  man  with  none, 
The  question  was,  he  being  dead, 
If  what  she  had  was  gone. 

"Quoth  Sir  John  Pratt,  '  The  settlement 
Suspended  did  remain, 
Living  the  husband;  but  him  dead 
It  doth  revive  again. ' 


336  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

(  Chorus  of  Puisne  Judges. ) 
"  Living  the  husband;  but  him  dead 
It  doth  revive  again." 

Chief  Justice  Pratt's  decision  on  this  point  having 
been  reversed  by  his  successor,  Chief  Justice  Byder's 
judgment  was  thus  reported: 

"  A  woman  having  a  settlement, 
Married  a  man  with  none, 
He  flies  and  leaves  her  destitute; 
What  then  is  to-be  done  ? 

"  Quoth  Ryder,  the  Chief  Justice, 
'  In  spite  of  Sir  John  Pratt, 
You'll  send  her  to  the  parish 
In  which  she  was  a  brat. 

"  ^Suspension  of  a  settlement 
Is  not  to  be  maintained; 
That  which  she  had  by  birth  subsists 
Until  another's  gained.' 

(  Chorus  of  Puisne  Judges. ) 
"  That  which  she  had  by  birth  subsists 
Until  another's  gained." 

'  In  the  early  months  of  his  married  life,  whilst  playing 
the  part  of  an  Oxford  don,  Lord  Eldon  was  required  to 
decide  in  an  important  action  brought  by  two  under- 
graduates against  the  cook  of  University  College.  The 
plaintiffs  declared  that  the  cook  had  "  sent  to  their 
rooms  an  apple-pie  that  could  not  be  eaten."  The 
defendant  pleaded  that  he  had  a  remarkably  fine  fillet 
of  veal  in  the  kitchen.  Having  set  aside  this  plea  on 
grounds  obvious  to  the  legal  mind,  and  not  otherwise 
then  manifest  to  unlearned  laymen,  Mr.  John  Scott 
ordered  the  apple-pie  to  be  brought  in  court;  but  the 
messenger,  dispatched  to  do  the  judge's  bidding,  re- 
turned with  the  astounding  intelligence  that  during  the 


Mirth.  337 

progress  of  the  litigation  a  party  of  under-graduates  had 
actually  devoured  the  pie — fruit  and  crust.  Nothing 
but  the  pan  was  left.  Judgment:  "  The  charge  here 
is,  that  the  cook  has  sent  up  an  apple-pie  that  cannot 
be  eaten.  Now  that  cannot  be  said  to  have  been  un- 
eatable which  has  been  eaten;  and  as  this  apple-pie 
has  been  eaten,  it  was  eatable.  Let  the  cook  be  ab- 
solved." 

But  of  all  the  judicial  decisions  on  record,  none  was 
delivered  with  more  comical  effect  than  Lord  Lough- 
borough's decision  not  to  hear  a  cause  brought  on  a 
wager  about  a  point  in  the  game  of  '  Hazard.'  A  con- 
stant frequenter  of  Brookes's  and  White's,  Lord  Lough- 
borough was  well  known  by  men  of  fashion  to  be  fairly 
versed  in  the  mysteries  of  gambling,  though  no  evidence 
has  ever  been  found  in  support  of  the  charge  that  he  was 
an  habitual  dicer.  That  he  ever  lost  much  by  play  is 
improbable;  but  the  scandal-mongers  of  Westminster 
had  some  plausible  reasons  for  laughing  at  the  virtuous 
indignation  of  the  spotless  Alexander  Wedderburn,  who, 
whilst  sitting  at  Nisi  Prius,  exclaimed,  "  Do  not  swear 
the  jury  in  this  case,  but  let  it  be  struck  out  of  the 
paper.  I  will  not  try  it.  The  administration  of  justice 
is  insulted  by  the  proposal  that  I  should  try  it.  To  my 
astonishment  I  find  that  the  action  is  brought  on  a 
wager  as  to  the  mode  of  playing  an  illegal,  disreputable, 
and  mischievous  game  called  'Hazard;'  whether,  allow- 
ing seven  to  be  the  main,  and  eleven  to  be  a  nick  to 
seven,  there  are  more  ways  than  six  of  nicking  seven  on 
the  dice  ?  Courts  of  justice  are  constituted  to  try  rights 
and  redress  injuries,  not  to  solve  the  problems  of  the 
gamesters.  The  gentlemen  of  the  jury  and  I  may  have 
heard  of  '  Hazard '  as  a  mode  of  dicing  by  which  sharpers 
live,  and  young  men  of  family  and  fortune  are  ruined; 
but  what  do  any  of  us  know  of  '  seven  being  the  main,'  or 
15- 


338  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

1  eleven  being  the  nick  to  seven  ?'  Do  we  come  here  to 
be  instructed  in  this  lore,  and  are  the  unusual  crowds 
(drawn  hither,  I  suppose,  by  the  novelty  of  the  expected 
entertainment) to  take  a  lesson  with  us  in  these  unholy 
mysteries,  which  they  are  to  practice  in  the  evening  in 
the  low  gaming-houses  in  St.  James  Street,  pithily 
called  by  a  name  which  should  inspire  a  salutary  terror 
of  entering  them  ?  Again,  I  say,  let  the  cause  be  struck 
out  of  the  paper.  Move  the  court,  if  you  please,  that  it 
may  be  restored,  and  if  my  brethren  think  that  I  do 
wrong  in  the  course  that  I  now  take,  I  hope  that  one  of 
them  will  officiate  for  me  here,  and  save  me  from  the  deg- 
radation of  trying  '  whether  there  be  more  than  six  ways 
of  nicking  seven  on  the  dice,  allowing  seven  to  be  the 
main  and  eleven  to  be  a  nick  to  seven' — a  question,  after 
all,  admitting  of  no  doubt,  and  capable  of  mathematical 
demonstration." 

With  equal  fervor  Lord  Kenyon  inveighed  against 
the  pernicious  usage  of  gambling,  urging  that  the  hells 
of  St.  James's  should  be  indicted  as  common  nuisances. 
The  '  legal  monk,'  as  Lord  Carlisle  stigmatized  him  for 
his  violent  denunciations  of  an  amusement  countenanced 
by  women  of  the  highest  fashion,  even  went  so  far  as  to 
exclaim — "  If  any  such  prosecutions  are  fairly  brought 
before  me,  and  the  guilty  parties  are  convicted,  whatever 
may  be  their  rank  or  station  in  the  country,  though  they 
may  be  the  first  ladies  in  the  land,  they  shall  certainly 
exhibit  themselves  in' the  pillory." 

The  same  considerations,  which  decided  Lord  Lough- 
borough not  to  try  an  action  brought  by  a  wager  con- 
cerning chicken-hazard,  made  Lord  Ellenborough  decline 
to  hear  a  cause  where  the  plaintiff  sought  to  recover 
money  wagered  on  a  cock-fight.  "There  is  likewise," 
said  Lord  Ellenborough,  "  another  principle  on  which  I 
think  an  action  on  such  wagers  cannot  be  maintained. 


Mirth.  339 

They  tend  to  the  degradation .  of  courts  of  justice.  It*  is 
impossible  to  be  engaged  in  ludicrous  inquiries  of  this 
sort  consistently  with  that  dignity  which  it  is  essential  to 
the  public  welfare  that  a  court  of  justice  should  always 
preserve.  I  will  not  try  the  plaintiff's  right  to  recover 
the  four  guineas,  which  might  involve  questions  on  the 
weight  of  the  cocks  and  the  construction  of  their  steel 
spurs." 

It  has  already  been  remarked  that  in  all  ages  the  wits 
of  Westminster  Hall  have  delighted  in  puns;  and  it  may 
be  here  added,  with  the  exception  of  some  twenty  happy 
verbal  freaks,  the  puns  of  lawyers  have  not  been  remark- 
able for  their  excellence.  L'Estrange  records  that  when 
a  stone  was  hurled  by  a  convict  from  the  dock  at 
Charles  I.'s  Chief  Justice  Richardson,  and  passed  just 
over  the  head  of  the  judge,  who  happened  to  be  sitting 
at  ease  and  lolling  on  his  elbow,  the  learned  man  smiled, 
and  observed  to  those  who  congratulated  him  on  his 
escape,  "  You  see  now,  if  I  had  been  an  upright  judge  I 
had  been  slaine."  .Under  George  HI.  Joseph  Jekyll* 
was  at  the  same  time  the  brightest  wit  and  most  shame- 
less punster  of  Westminster  Hall ;  and  such  pride  did  he 
take  in  his  reputation  as  a  punster,  that  after  the  fashion 
of  the  wits  of  an  earlier  period  he  was  often  at  consider- 
able pains  to  give  a  pun  a  well-wrought  epigrammatic 
setting.  Bored  with  the  long-winded  speech  of  a  prosy 
sergeant,  he  wrote  on  a  slip  of  paper,  which  was  in  due 
course  passed  along  the  barristers'  benches  in  the  court 
where  he  was  sitting — 


*  One  of  Jekyll's  best  displays  of  brilliant  impudence  was  perpetrated  on  a  Welsh 
judge,  who  was  alike  notorious  for  his  greed  of  office  and  his  want  of  personal 
cleanliness.  "  My  dear  sir,"  Jekyll  observed  in  his  most  amiable  manner  to  this 
mo8tunamiable  personage,  "you  have  asked  the  minister  for  almost  everything 
else,  why  dcnVt  you  ask  him  for  a  piece  of  soap  and  a  nail-brush  ?" 


340  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

"  The  sergeants  are  a  grateful  race, 
Their  dress  and  language  show  it ; 
Their  purple  garments  come  from  Tyre, 
Their  arguments  go  to  it. " 

"When  Garrow,  by  a  more  Skilful  than  successful  cross- 
examination,  was  endeavoring  to  lure  a  witness  (an  un- 
married lady  of  advanced  years)  into  an  acknowledgment 
that  payment  of  certain  money  in  dispute  had  been  ten- 
dered, Jekyll  threw  him  this  couplet — 

"  Garrow,  forbear  ;  that  tough  old  jade 
Will  never  prove  a  tender  maid." 

So  also,  when  Lord  Eldon  and  Sir  Arthur  Pigott  each 
made  a  stand  in  court  for  his  favorite  pronunciation  of 
the  word  '  Hen  ;'  Lord  Eldon  calling  the  word  lion  and 
Sir  Arthur  maintaining  that  it  was  to  be  pronunced  like 
lean,  Jekyll,  with  an  allusion  to  the  parsimonious  arrange- 
ments of  the  Chancellor's  kitchen,  perpetrated  the  jeu 
d'esprit — 

"  Sir  Arthur,  Sir  Arthur,  why  what  do  you  mean 
By  saying  the  Chancellor's  lion  is  lean  f 
D'ye  think  that  his  kitchen's  so  bad  as  all  that, 
That  nothing  within  it  can  ever  get  fat?" 

By  this  difference  concerning  the  pronunciation  of  a  word 
the  present  writer  is  reminded  of  an  amicable  contest 
that  occurred  in  Westminster  Hall  between  Lord  Camp- 
bell and  a  Q.C.  who  is  still  in  the  front  rank  of  court-ad- 
vocates. In  an  action  brought  to  recover  for  damages 
done  to  a  carriage,  the  learned  counsel  repeatedly  called 
the  vehicle  in  quession  a  broug-ham,  pronouncing  both 
syllables  of  the  word  brougham.  Whereupon  Lord 
Campbell  with  considerable  pomposity  observed,  "  Broom 
i  i  the  more  usual  pronunciation ;  a  carriage  of  the  kind 
you  mean  is  generally  and  not  incorrectly  called  a  broom 


Mirth,  341 

— that  pronunciation  is  open  to  no  grave  objection,  and 
it  has  the  great  advantage  of  saving  the  time  consumed 
by  uttering  an  extra  syllable."  Half  an  hour  later  in  the 
same  trial  Lord  Campbell,  alluding  to  a  decision  given 
in  a  similar  action,  said,  "In  that  case  the  carriage 
which  had  sustained  injury  was  an  omnibus "  "  Par- 
don me,  my  lord,"  interposed  the  Queen's  Counsel,  with 
such  promptitude  that  his  lordship  was  startled  into 
silence,  "  a  carriage  of  the  kind  to  which  you  draw  atten- 
tention  is  usually  termed  'bus;'  that  pronunciation  is 
open  to  no  grave  objection,  and  it  has  the  great  advantage 
of  saving  the  time  consumed  by  uttering  two  extra  sylla- 
bles." The  interruption  was  followed  by  a  roar  of  laugh- 
ter, in  which  Lord  Campbell  joined  more  heartily  than 
any  one  else. 

One  of  Jekyll's  happy  sayings  was  spoken  at  Exeter, 
when  he  defended  several  needlemen  who  were  charged 
with  raising  a  riot  for  the  purpose  of  forcing  the  master- 
tailors  to  give  higher  wages.  Whilst  Jekyll  was  examin- 
ing a  witness  as  to  the  number  of  tailors  present  at  the 
alleged  riot,  Lord  Eldon — then  Chief  Justice  of  the 
Common  Pleas — reminded  him  that  three  persons  can 
make  that  which  the  law  regards  as  a  riot;  whereupon 
the  witty  advocate  answered,  "  Yes,  my  lord,  Hale  and 
Hawkins  lay  down  the  law  as  your  lordship  states  it,  and 
I  rely  on  their  authority;  for  if  there  must  be  three  men 
to  make  a  riot,  the  rioters  being  tailors,  there  must  be 
nine  times  three  present,  and  unless  the  prosecutor 
make  out  that  there  were  twenty-seven  joining  in  this 
breach  of  the  peace,  my  clients  are  entitled  to  an  ac- 
quittal." On  Lord  Eldon  enquiring  whether  he  relied 
on  common-law  or  statute-law,  the  counsel  for  the  de- 
fence answered  firmly,  "  My  lord,  I  rely  on  a  well-known 
maxim,  as  old  as  Magna  Charta,  Nine  Tai'ors  make  a  Man" 
rinding  themselves  unable  to  reward  a  lawyer  for  so  ex- 


34:2  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

cellent  a  jest  with  an  adverse  verdict,  the  jury  acquitted 
the  prisoners.  Towards  the  close  of  his  career  Eldon 
made  a  still  better  jest  than  this  of  JekylTs  concerning 
tailors.  In  1829,  when  Lyndhurst  was  occupying  the 
woolsack  for  the  first  time,  and  Eldon  was  longing  to  re- 
cover the  seals,  the  latter  presented  a  petition  from  the 
Tailors'  Company  at   Glasgow   against   Catholic  Relief. 

"  What!"  asked  Lord  Lyndhurst  from  the  woolsack,  in  a 
low  voice,  "  do  the  tailors  trouble  themselves  about  such 
measures  ?"  Whereto,  with  unaccustomed  quickness,  the 
old  Tory  of  the  Tories  retorted,  "  No  wonder;  you  can't 
suppose  that  tailors  like  turncoats." 

As  specimens  of  a  kind  of  pleasantry  becoming  more 
scarce  every  year,  some  of  Sir  George  Rose's  court 
witticisms  are  excellent.  When  Mr.  Beams,  the  re- 
porter, defended  himself  against  the  friction  of  passing 
barristers  by  a  wooden  bar,  the  flimsiness  of  which  was 
pointed  out  to  Sir  George  (then  Mr.  Rose),  the  wit  an- 
swered— 

"  Yes — the  partition  is  certainly  thin — 
Yet  thick  enough,  truly,  the  Beams  within." 

The  same  originator  of  happy  sayings  pointed  to  Eldon's 
characteristic  weakness  in  the  lines — 

"  Mr.  Leach  made  a  speech, 

Pithy,  clear,  and  strong  ; 
Mr.  Hart,  on  the  other  part, 

Was  prosy,  dull,  and  long  ; 
Mr.  Parker  made  that  darker 

Which  was  dark  enough  without  ; 
Mr.  Bell  spoke  so  well, 

That  the  Chancellor  said — '  I  douht.'  " 

Ear  from  being  offended  by  this  allusion  to  his  notorious 
mental  infirmity,  Lord  Eldon,  shortly  after  the  verses  had 
floated  into  circulation,  concluded  one  of  his  decisions  by 


Mirth.  343 

saying,  with  a  significant  smile,  "  And  here  the  Chancellor 
does  not  doubt." 

Not  less  remarkable  for  precipitancy  than  Eldon  for  pro- 
crastination, Sir  John  Leach,  Vice-Chancellor,  was  said 
to  have  done  more  mischief  by  excessive  haste  in  a  single 
term  than  Eldon  in  his  whole  life  wrought  through  ex- 
treme caution.  The  holders  of  this  opinion  delighted  to 
repeat  the  poor  and  not  perspicuous  lines — 

"In  equity's  high  court  there  are 
Two  sad  extremes,  'tis  clear  ; 
Excessive  slowness  strikes  us  there, 
Excessive  quickness  here. 

"  Their  source,  'twixt  good  and  evil,  brings 
A  difficulty  nice  ; 
The  first  from  Eldon's  virtue  springs, 
The  latter  from  his  vice.' 

It  is  needless  to  remark  that  this  attempt  to  gloss  the 
Chancellor's  shortcomings  is  an  illustration  of  the  readi- 
ness with  which  censors  apologize  for  the  misdeeds  of 
eminently  fortunate  offenders.  Whilst  Eldon's  procrasti- 
nation and  Leach's  haste  were  thus  put  in  contrast,  an 
epigram  also  placed  the  Chancellor's  frailty  in  comparison 
with  the  tedious  prolixity  of  the  Master  of  the  Rolls — 

"  To  cause  delay  in  Lincoln's  Inn 
Two  di Trent  methods  tend  : 
His  lordship's  judgments  ne'er  begin, 
His  honors  never  end." 

A  mirth-loving  judge,  Justice  Powell,  could  be  as 
thoroughly  humorous  in  private  life  as  he  was  fearless 
and  just  upon  the  bench.  Swift  describes  him  as  a  sur- 
passingly merry  old  gentleman,  laughing  heartily  at  all 
comic  things,  and  his  own  droll  stoides  more  than  aught 
else.     In  court  he  could  not  always  refrain  from  jocular- 


344  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

ity.  For  instance,  when  he  tried  Jane  Wenham  for  witch- 
craft, and  she  assured  him  that  she  could  fly,  his  eye 
twinkled  as  he  answered,  "  Well,  then  you  may;'  there  is 
no  law  against  flying."  When  Fowler,  Bishop  of  Glouces- 
ter— a  thorough  believer  in  what  is  now-a-days  called 
spiritualism — was  persecuting  his  acquaintance  with  silly 
stories  about  ghosts,  Powell  gave  him  a  telling  reproof 
for  his  credulity  by  describing  a  horrible  apparition  which 
was  represented  as  having  disturbed  the  narrator's  rest 
on  the  previous  night.  At  the  hour  of  midnight,  as 
the  clocks  were  striking  twelve,  the  judge  was  roused 
from  his  first  slumber  by  a  hideous  sound.  Starting  up, 
he  saw  at  the  foot  of  his  uncompanioned  bed  a  figure — 
dark,  gloomy,  terrible,  holding  before  its  grim  and  repul- 
sive visage  a  lamp  that  shed  an  uncertain  light.  "  May 
Heaven  have  mercy  on  us !"  tremulously  ejaculated  the 
bishop  at  this  point  of  the  story.  The  judge  continued 
his  story  :  "Be  calm,  my  lord  bishop;  be  calm.  The 
awful  part  of  this  mysterious  interview  has  still  to  be  told. 
Nerving  myself  to  fashion  the  words  of  inquiry,  I  ad- 
dressed the  nocturnal  visitor  thus — '  Strange  being,  why 
hast  thou  come  at  this  still  hour  to  perturb  a  sinful  mor- 
tal ?'  You  understand,  my  lord,  I  said  this  in  hollow 
tones — in  what  I  may  almost  term  a  sepulchral  voice." 
"  Ay — ay,"  responded  the  bishop,  with  intense  excitement; 
"go  on — I  implore  you  to  go  on.  What  did  it  answer  ?" 
"It  answered  in  a  voice  not  greatly  different  from  the 
voice  of  a  human  creature — •  Please,  sir,  I  am  the  watchman 
on  beat,  and  your  street-door  is  open.'  "  Readers  will  remem- 
ber the  use  which  Barham  has  made  of  this  story  in  the 
Ingoldsby  Legends. 

As  a  Justice  of  the  King's  Bench,  Powell  had  in  Chief 
Justice  Holt  an  associate  who  could  not  only  appreci- 
ate the  wit  of  others,  but  could  himself  say  smart 
things.     When  Lacy,  the   fanatic,  forced   his   way  into 


Mirth.  ■  345 

Holt's  house  in  Bedford  Row,  the  Chief  Justice  was 
equal  to  the  occasion.  "  I  come  to  you,"  said  Lacy,  "  a 
prophet  from  the  Lord  God,  who  has  sent  me  to  thee 
and  would  have  thee  grant  a  nolle  prosequi  for  John  At- 
kins, his  servant,  whom  thou  hast  sent  to  prison." 
Whereto  the  judge  answered,  with  proper  emphasis, 
"  Thou  art  a  false  prophet  and  a  lying  knave.  If  the 
Lord  God  had  sent  thee,  it  would  have  been  to  the  Attor- 
ney General,  for  the  Lord  God  knows  that  it  belongeth 
not  to  the  Chief  Justice,  to  grant  a  nolle  prosequi;  but  I, 
as  Chief  Justice,  can  grant  a  warrant  to  commit  thee  to 
John  Atkins's  company."  Whereupon  the  false  prophet, 
sharing  the  fate  of  many  a  true  one,  was  forthwith, 
clapped  in  prison. 

Now  that  so  much  has  been  said  of  Thurlow's  brutal 
sarcasms,  justice  demands  for  his  memory  an  acknow- 
ledgment that  he  possessed  a  vein  of  genuine  humor  that 
could  make  itself  felt  without  wounding.  In  his  under- 
graduate days  at  Cambridge  he  is  said  to  have  worried 
the  tutors  of  Caius  with  a  series  of  disorderly  pranks  and 
impudent  escapades,  but  on  one  occasion  he  unquestionably 
displayed  at  the  university  the  quick  wit  that  in  after  life 
rescued  him  from  many  an  embarrassing  position.  "  Sir," 
observed  a  tutor,  giving  the  unruly  undergraduate  a  look 
of  disapproval,  "  I  never  come  to  the  window  without 
seeing  you  idling  in  the  court."  "  Sir,"  replied  young 
Thurlow,  imitating  the  don's  tone,  "  I  never  come  into  the 
court  without  seeing  you  idling  at  the  window."  Years 
later,  when  he  had  become  a  great  man,  and  John  Scott 
was  paying  him  assiduous  court,  Thurlow  said,  in  ridicule 
of  the  mechanical  awkwardness  of  many  successful  equity 
draughtsmen,  "  Jack  Scott,  don't  you  think  we  could  in- 
vent a  machine  to  draw  bills  and  answers  in  Chancery?' 
Having  laughed  at  the  suggestion  when  it  was  made,  Scott 
put  away  the  droll  thought  in  his  memory  ;  and  when  he 


346  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

had  risen  to  be  Attorney  General  reminded  Lord  Thurlow 
of  it  under  rather  awkward  circumstances.  Macnamara, 
the  conveyancer,  being  concerned  as  one  of  the  principals 
in  a  Chancery  suit,  Lord  Thurlow  advised  him  to  submit 
the  answer  to  the  bill  filed  against  him  to  the  Attorney 
General.  In  due  course  the  answer  came  under  Scott's 
notice,  when  he  found  it  so  wretchedly  drawn,  that  he 
advised  Macnamara  to  have  another  answer  drawn  by 
some  one  who  understood  pleading.  On  the  same  day  he 
was  engaged  at  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Lords,  when  Lord 
Thurlow  came  to  him,  and  said,  "  So  I  understand  you 
don't  think  my  friend  Mac's  answer  will  do?"  "Do!" 
Scott  replied,  contemptuously.  "  My  Lord,  it  won't  do 
at  all !  it  must  have  been  drawn  by  that  wooden  machine 
which  you  once  told  me  might  be  invented  to  draw  bills 
and  answers."  "  That's  very  unlucky,"  answered  Thur- 
low, "and  impudent  too,  if  you  had  known — that  I 
drew  the  answer  myself." 

Lord  Lyndhurst  used  to  maintain  that  it  was  one  of 
the  chief  duties  of  a  judge  to  render  it  disagreeable  to 
counsel  to  talk  nonsense.  Jeffreys  in  his  milder  moments 
no  doubt  salved  his  conscience  with  the  same  doctrine, 
when  he  recalled  how,  after  elating  him  with  a  compli- 
ment, he  struck  down  the  rising  junior  with  "  Lord,  sir  ! 
you  must  be  cackling  too.  We  told  you,  Mr.  Bradbury, 
your  objection  was  very  ingenious  ;  that  must  not  make 
you  troublesome  :  you  cannot  lay  an  egg,  but  you  must 
be  cackling  over  it."  Doubtless,  also,  he  felt  it  one  of  the 
chief  duties  of  a  judge  to  restrain  attorneys  from  talking 
nonsense  when — on  hearing  that  the  solicitor  from  whom 
Jhe  received  his  first  brief  had  boastfully  remarked,  in  al- 
lusion to  past  services,  "  My  Lord  Chancellor !  I  made 
him  !" — he  exclaimed,  "  Well,  then,  I'll  lay  my  maker  by 
the  heels,"  and  forthwith  committed  his  former  client  and 
patron  to  the  Fleet  prison.     If  this  bully  of  the  bench 


Mirth.  347 

actually,  as  he  is  said  to  have  done,  interrupted  the  ven- 
erable Maynard  by  saying,  "  You  have  lost  your  know- 
ledge of  law  ;  your  memory,  I  tell  you,  is  failing  through 
old  age,"  how  must  every  hearer  of  the  speech  have  ex- 
ulted when  Maynard  quietly  answered,  "  Yes,  Sir  George, 
I  have  forgotten  more  law  than  you  ever  learned  ;  but 
allow  me  to  say,  I  have  not  forgotten  much." 

On  the  other  hand  it  should  be  remembered  that  May- 
nard was  a  man  eminently  qualified  to  sow  violent  ani- 
mosities, and  that  he  was  a  perpetual  thorn  in  the  flesh 
of  the  political  barristers,  whose  principles  he  abhorred. 
A  subtle  and  tricky  man,  he  was  constantly  misleading 
judges  by  citing  fictitious  authorities,  and  then  smiling  at 
their  professional  ignorance  when  they  had  swallowed  his 
audacious  fabrications.  Moreover,  the  manner  of  his 
speech  was  sometimes  as  offensive  as  its  substance  was 
dishonest.  Strafford  spoke  a  bitter  criticism  not  only  with 
regard  to  Maynard  and  Glyn,  but  with  regard  to  the  pre- 
vailing tone  of  the  bar,  when,  describing  the  conduct  of 
the  advocates  who  managed  his  prosecution,  he  said  : 
"  Glynne  and  Maynard  used  me  like  advocates,  but  Palmer 
and  Whitelock  like  gentlemen  ;  and  yet  the  latter  left  out 
nothing  against  me  that  was  material  to  be  urged  against 
me."  As  a  Devonshire  man  Maynard  is  one  of  the  many 
cases  which  may  be  cited  against  the  smart  saying  of 
Sergeant  Davy,  who  used  to  observe  :  "  The  further  I 
journey  toward  the  West,  the  more  convinced  I  am  that 
the  wise  men  come  from  the  East."  But  shrewd,  obser- 
vant, liberal  though  he  was  in  most  respects,  he  was  on 
one  matter  so  far  behind  the  spirit  of  the  age  that,  blinded 
and  ruled  by  an  unwise  sentiment,  he  gave  his  parliamen- 
tary support  to  an  abortive  measura  "  to  prevent  further 
building  in  London  and  the  neighborhood."  In  support 
of  this  measure  he  observed,  "  This  building  is  the  ruin 
of  the  gentry  and  ruin  of  religion,  as  leaving  many  good 


348  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

people  without  churches  to  go  to.  This  enlarging  of  Lon- 
don makes  it  filled  with  lacqueys  and  pages.  In  St. 
Giles's  parish  scarce  the  fifth  part  come  to  church,  and 
we  shall  have  no  religion  at  last." 

Whilst  justice  has  suffered  something  in  respect  of  dig- 
nity from  the  overbearing  temper  of  judges  to  counsel 
from  collisions  of  the  bench  with  the  bar,  and  from  the 
mutual  hostility  of  rival  advocates,  she  has  at  times  sus- 
tained even  greater  injury  from  the  jealousies  and  alter- 
cations of  judges.  Too  often  wearers  of  the  ermine,  sit- 
ting on  the  same  bench,  nominally  for  the  purpose  of  as- 
sisting each  other,  have  roused  the  laughter  of  the  bar, 
and  the  indignation  of  suitors,  by  their  petty  sqiiabbles. 
"  It  now  comes  to  my  turn,"  an  Irish  judge  observed, 
when  it  devolved  on  him  to  support  the  decision  of  one 
or  the  other  of  two  learned  coadjutors,  who  had  stated 
with  more  fervor  than  courtesy  altogether  irreconcilable 
opinions — "  It  now  comes  to  my  turn  to  declare  my  view 
of  the  case,  and  fortunately  I  can  be  brief.  I  agree  with 
my  brother  A,  from  the  irresistible  force  of  my  brother 
B's  arguments."  Extravagant  as  this  case  may  appear, 
the  King's  Bench  of  Westminster  Hall,  under  Mansfield 
and  Kenyon,  witnessed  several  not  less  scandalous  and 
comical  differences.  Taking  thorough  pleasure  in  his 
work,  Lord  Mansfield  was  not  less  industrious  than  im- 
partial in  the  discharge  of  his  judicial  functions  ;  so  long 
as  there  was  anything  for  him  to  learn  with  regard  to  a 
cause,  he  not  only  sought  for  it  with  pains  but  with  a 
manifest  pleasure  similar  to  that  delight  in  judicial  work 
which  caused  the  French  Advocate,  Cottu,  to  say  of  Mr. 
Justice  Bayley  :  "  H  s'amuse  a,  juger  :"  but  notwithstand- 
ing these  good  qualities,  he  was  often  culpably  deficient 
in  respect  for  the  opinions  of  his  subordinate  coadjutors. 
At  times  a  vain  desire  to  impress  on  the  minds  of  specta- 
tors that  his  intellect  was  the  paramount  power  of  the 


Mirth.  349 

bench  ;  at  other  times  a  personal  dislike  to  one  of  his 
puisnes  caused  him  to  derogate  from  the  dignity  of  his 
court,  in  cases  where  he  was  especially  careful  to  protect 
the  interests  of  suitors.  With  silence  more  disdainful 
than  any  words  could  have  been,  he  used  to  turn  away 
from  Mr.  Justice  Willes,  at  the  moment  when  the  latter 
expected  his  chief  to  ask  his  opinion  ;  and  on  such  occa- 
sions the  indignant  puisne  seldom  had  the  prudence  and 
nerve  to  conceal  his  mortification.  "  I  have  not  been  con- 
sulted, and  I  will  be  heard !"  he  once  shrieked  forth  in  a 
paroxysm  of  rage  caused  by  Mansfield's  contemptuous 
treatment  ;  and  forty  years  afterwards  Jeremy  Bentham, 
who  was  a  witness  of  the  insult  and  its  effect,  observed  : 
"  At  this  distance  of  time — five-and-thirty  or  forty  years 
— the  feminine  scream  issuing  out  of  his  manly  frame  still 
tingles  in  my  ears."  Mansfield's  overbearing  demeanor 
to  his  puisnes  was  reproduced  with  less  dignity  by  his 
successor  ;  but  Buller,  the  judge  who  wore  ermine  whilst 
he  was  still  in  his  thirty- third  year,  and  who  confessed 
that  his  "  idea  of  heaven  wras  to  sit  at  Nisi  Prius  all  day, 
and  to  play  whist  all  night,"  seized  the  first  opportunity 
to  give  Taffy  Kenyon  a  lesson  in  good  manners  by  stating, 
with  impressive  self-possession  and  convincing  logic,  the 
reasons  which  induced  him  to  think  the  judgment  de- 
livered by  his  chief  to  be  altogether  bad  in  law  and  argu- 
ment. 


CHAPTER  XLI. 

wits  in  'silk'  and  punsters  in  'ermine/ 

WHILST   Lord  Camden  held  the  chiefship  of  the 
Common  Pleas,  he  was  walking  with  his  friend 
Lord  Dacre  on  the  outskirts  of  an  Essex  village,  when 


350  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

they  passed  the  parish  stocKS.     "  I  wonder,"  said   the 
Chief  Justice,  "  whether  a  man  in  the  stocks  endures  a 
punishment  that  is  physically  painful  ?    I  am  inclined  to 
think  that,  apart  from  the  sense  of  humiliation  and  other 
mental,  anguish,  the  prisoner  suffers  nothing,  unless  the 
populace  express  their  satisfaction  at  his  fate  by  pelting 
him  with  brick-bats."     "  Suppose  you  settle  your  doubts 
by  putting  your  feet  into  the  holes,"  rejoined  Lord  Dacre, 
carelessly.     In  a  trice  the  Chief  Justice  was  sitting  on  the 
ground  with  his  feet  some  fifteen  inches  above  the  level 
of  his  seat,  and  his  ankles  encircled  by  hard  wood.     "  Now, 
Dacre  !"  he  exclaimed,  enthusiastically,  "fasten  the  bolts, 
and  leave  me  for  ten  minutes."     Like  a  courteous  host 
Lord  Dacre  complied  with  the  whim  of  his  guest,  and 
having  placed  it  beyond  his  power  to  liberate  himself 
bade  him  '  farewell '  for  ten  minutes.     Intending  to  saun- 
ter along  the  lane  and  return  at  the  expiration  of  the 
stated  period,  Lord  Dacre  moved  away,  and  falling  into 
one  of  his  customary  fits  of  reverie,  soon  forgot  all  about 
the   stocks,  his  friend's  freak,  and  his  friend.     In  the 
meantime  the  Chief  Justice  went  through  every  torture 
of  an  agonizing  punishment — acute  shootings  along  the 
confined  limbs,  aching  in  the  feet,  angry  pulsations  under 
the  toes,  violent  cramps  in  the  muscles  and  thighs,  gnaw- 
ing pain  at  the  point  where  his  person  came  in  immediate 
contact  with  the  cold  ground,  pins-and-needles  every- 
where.    Amongst  the  various  forms  of  his  physical  dis- 
comfort, faintness,  fever,  giddiness,  and  raging  thirst  may 
be  mentioned.     He  implored  a  peasant  to  liberate  him, 
and  the  fellow  answered  with  a  shout  of  derision  ;  he 
hailed  a  passing  clergyman,  and  explained  that  he  was 
not   a  culprit,  but  Lord  Camden,  Chief  Justice  of  the 
Common  Pleas,  and  one  of  Lord  Dacre's  guests.     "  Ah !" 
observed  the  man  of  cloth,  not  so  much  answering  the 
wretched  culprit  as  passing  judgment  on  his  case,  "  mad 


Mirth.  351 

with  liquor.  Yes,  drunkenness  is  sadly  on  the  increase  ; 
'tis  droll,  though,  for  a  drunkard  in  the  stocks  to  imagine 
himself  a  Chief  Justice !"  and  on  he  passed.  A  farmer's 
wife  jogged  by  on  her  pillion,  and  hearing  the  wretched 
man  exclaim  that  he  should  die  of  thirst ;  the  good  crea- 
ture gave  him  a  juicy  apple,  and  hoped  that  his  punish- 
ment would  prove  for  the  good  of  his  souL  Not  ten 
minutes,  but  ten  hours  did  the  Chief  Justice  sit  in  the 
stocks,  and  when  at  length  he  was  carried  into  Lord  Da- 
cre's  house,  he  was  in  no  humor  to  laugh  at  his  own  mis- 
erable plight.  Not  long  afterwards  he  presided  at  a  trial 
in  which  a  workman  brought  an  action  against  a  magis- 
trate who  had  wrongfully  placed  him  in  the  stocks.  The 
counsel  for  the  defence  happening  to  laugh  at  the  state- 
ment of  the  plaintiff,  who  maintained  that  he  had  suf- 
fered intense  pain  during  his  confinement,  Lord  Camden 
leaned  forwards  and  inquired  in  a  whisper,  "  Brother 
were  you  ever  in  the  stocks  ?"  "  Never,  my  lord,"  an- 
swered the  advocate,  with  a  look  of  lively  astonishment. 
"  I  have  been,"  was  the  whispered  reply  ;  "  and  let  me 
assure  you  that  the  agony  inflicted  by  the  stocks  is — 
awfvl !" 

Of  a  different  sort,  but  scarcely  less  intense,  was  the 
pain  endured  by  Lord  Mansfield  whenever  a  barrister 
pronounced  a  Latin  word  with  a  false  quantity.  "  My 
lords,"  said  the  Scotch  advocate,  Crosby,  at  the  bar  of 
the  House  of  Lords,  "I  have  the  honor  to  appear 
before  your  lordships  as  counsel  for  the  Curators." 
"Ugh!"  groaned  the  Westminster  Oxford  law-lord, 
softening  his  reproof  by  an  allusion  to  his  Scotch 
nationality,  "Curators,  Mr.  Crosby,  Curators:  I  wish 
our  countrymen  would  pay  a  little  more  attention  to 
prosody."  "My  Lord,"  replied  Mr.  Crosby,  with  de- 
lightful readiness  and  composure,  "I  can  assure  you 
that  our  countrymen  are  very  proud  of  your  lordship  as 


352  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

the  greatest  senator  and  orator  of  the  present  age."  The 
barrister  who  made  Baron  Alderson  shudder  under  his 
robes  by  applying  for  a  '  nolle  prosequi,'  was  not  equally 
quick  at  self-defence,  when  that  judge  interposed,  "  Stop, 
sir — consider  that  this  is  the  last  day  of  term,  and  don't 
make  things  unnecessarily  long."  It  was  Baron  Aider- 
son  who,  in  reply  to  the  juryman's  confession  that  he 
was  deaf  in  one  ear,  observed,  "  Then  leave  the  box 
before  the  trial  begins;  for  it  is  necessary  that  jurymen 
should  hear  both  sides." 

Amongst  legal  wits,  Lord  Ellenborough  enjoys  a  high 
place;  and  though  in  dealing  out  satire  upon  barristers 
and  witnesses,  and  even  on  his  judicial  coadjutors,  he 
was  often  needlessly  severe,  he  seldom  perpetrated  a  jest 
the  force  of  which  lay  solely  in  its  cruelty.  Perhaps  the 
most  harsh  and  reprehensible  outburst  of  satiric  humor 
recorded  of  him  is  the  crushing  speech  by  which'  he 
ruined  a  young  man  for  life.  "  The  unfortunate  client 
for  whom  it  is  my  privilege  to  appear,"  said  a  young 
barrister,  making  his  first  essay  in  Westminster  Hall — 
"  the  unfortunate  client,  my  lord,  for  whom  I  appear — 

hem !  hem ! — I  say,  my  lord,  my  unfortunate  client " 

Leaning  forwards,  and  speaking  in  a  soft,  cooing  voice, 
that  was  all  the  more  derisive,  because  it  was  so  gentle, 
Lord  Ellenborough  said,  "you  may  go  on,  sir — so  far 
the  court  is  with  you."  One  would  have  liked  his 
lordship  better  had  he  sacrificed  his  jest  to  humanity,  and 
acted  as  long  afterwards  that  true  gentleman,  Mr. 
Justice  Talfourd,  acted,  who,  seeing  a  young  barrister 
overpowered  with  nervousness,  gave  him  time  to  recover 
himself  by  saying,  in  the  kindest  possible  manner, 
"Excuse  me  for  interrupting  you — but  for  a  minute  I 
am  not  at  liberty  to  pay  you  attention."  Whereupon 
the  Judge  took  up  his  pen  and  wrote  a  short  note  to  a 
friend.      Before  the  note  was  finished,  the  young  bar- 


Mirth.  353 

rister  had  completely  recovered  his  self-possession,  and 
by  an  admirable  speech  secured  a  verdict  for  his  client. 
A  highly  nervous  man,  he  might  on  that  day  have  been 
broken  for  life,  like  Ellenborough's  victim,  by  mockery; 
but  fortunate  in  appearing  before  a  judge  whose  witty 
tongue  knew  not  how  to  fashion  unkind  words,  he 
triumphed  over  his  temporary  weakness,  and  has  since 
achieved  well  deserved  success  in  his  profession.  Talfourd 
might  have  made  a  jest  for  the  thoughtless  to  laugh  at; 
but  he  preferred  to  do  an  act,  on  which  those  who  loved 
him  like  to  think. 

When  Preston,  the  great  conveyancer,  gravely  in- 
formed the  judges  of  the  King's  Bench  that  "  an  estate 
in  fee  simple  was  the  highest  estate  known  to  the  law  of 
England,"  Lord  Ellenborough  checked  the  great  Chancery 
lawyer,  and  said  with  politest .  irony,  "  Stay,  stay,  Mr. 
Preston,  let  me  take  that  down.  An  estate"  (the  judge 
writing  as  he  spoke)  "in  fee  simple  is — the  highest 
estate — known  to — the  law  of  England.  Thank  you, 
Mr.  Preston !  The  court,  sir,  is  much  indebted  to  you 
for  the  information."  Having  inflicted  on  the  court  an 
unspeakably  dreary  oration,  Preston,  towards  the  close 
of  the  day,  asked  when  it  would  be  their  lordship's  plea- 
sure to  hear  the  remainder  of  his  argument;  whereupon 
Lord  Ellenborough  uttered  a  sigh  of  resignation,  and 
answered,  'We  are  bound  to  hear  you,  and  we  will 
endeavor  to  give  you  our  undivided  attention  on  Friday 
next;  but  as  for  pleasure,  that,  sir,  has  been  long  out  of 
the  question. 

Probably  mistelling  an  old  story,  and  taking  to  him- 
self the  merit  of  Lord  Ellenborough's  reply  to  Preston, 
Sir  Vicary  Gibbs  (Chief  of  the  Common  Pleas)  used  to 
tell  his  friends  that  Sergeant  Vaughan — the  sergeant  who, 
on  being  subsequently  raised  to  the  bench  through  the 
influence  of  his  elder  brother,  Sir  Henry  Halford,  the 


354  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

court  physician,  was  humorously  described  by  the  wits  of 
Westminster  Hall  as  a  judge  by  prescription — once  ob- 
served in  a  grandiose  address  to  the  Judges  of  the 
Common  Pleas,  "For  though  our  law  takes  cognizance 
of  divers  different  estates,  I  may  be  permitted  to  say, 
without"  reserve  or  qualification  of  any  kind,  that  the 
highest  estate  known  to  the  law  of  England  is  an  estate 
in  fee  simple."  Whereupon  Sir  Vicary,  according  to 
his  own  account,  interrupted  the  sergeant  with  an  air  of 
incredulity  and  astonishment.  "  What  is  your  proposi- 
tion, brother  Vaughan?  Perhaps  I  did  not  hear  you 
rightly!"  Flustered  by  the  interruption,  which  com- 
pletely effected  its  object,  the  sergeant  explained,  "My 
lord,  I  mean  to  contend  that  an  estate  in  fee  simple  is 
one  of  the  highest  estates  known  to  the  law  of  England, 
that  is,  my  lord,  that  it  may  be  under  certain  circum- 
stances— and  sometimes  is  so." 

Notwithstanding  his  high  reputation  for  wit,  Lord 
Ellenborough  would  deign  to  use  the  oldest  jests.  Thus 
of  Mr.  Caldecott,  who  over  and  over  again,  with  dull 
verbosity,  had  said  that  certain  limestone  quarries,  like 
lead  and  copper  mines,  "  were  not  rateable,  because  the 
limestone  could  only  be  reached  by  boring,  which  was 
matter  of  science,"  he  gravely  inquired,  "  Would  you, 
Mr.  Caldecott,  have  us  believe  that  every  kind  of  boring 
is  matter  of  science  ?"  With  finer  humor  he  nipped  in 
the  bud  one  of  Randle  Jackson's  flowery  harangues. 
"  My  lords,"  said  the  orator,  with   nervous  intonation, 

"  in  the  book  of  nature  it  is  written "     "Be  kind 

enough,  Mr.  Jackson,"  interposed  Lord  Ellenborough, 
"  to  mention  the  page  from  which  you  are  about  to 
quote."  This  calls  to  mind  the  ridicule  which,  at  an 
earlier  period  of  his  career,  he  cast  on  Sheridan  for  say- 
ing at  the  trial  of  Warren  Hastings,  "  The  treasures  in 
the  Zenana  of  the  Begum  are  offerings  laid  by  the  hand 


Mirth.  355 

of  piety  on  the  altar  of  a  saint."  To  this  not  too 
rhetorical  statement,  Edward  Law,  as  leading  counsel  for 
"Warren  Hastings,  replied  by  asking,  "  how  the  lady  was 
to  be  considered  a  saint,  and  how  the  camels  were  to  be 
laid  upon  the  altar  ?"  With  greater  pungency,  Sheridan 
defended  himself  by  saying, ."  This  is  the  first  time  in 
my  life  that  I  ever  heard  of  special  pleading  on  a  meta- 
phor, *or  a  bill  of  indictment  against  a  trope;  but  such  is 
the  turn  of  the  learned  gentleman's  mind,  that  when  he 
attempts  to  be  humorous  no  jest  can  be  found,  and  when 
serious  no  fact  is  visible."*  To  the  last  Law  delighted 
to  point  the  absurdities  of  orators  who  in  aiming  at  the 
sublime  only  achieved  the  ridiculous.  "  My  lords,"  said 
Mr.  Gaselee,  arguing  that  mourning  coaches  at  a  funeral 
were  not  liable  to  post-horse  duty,  "  it  never  could  have 
been  the  intention  of  a  Christian  legislature  to  aggravate 
the  grief  which  mourners  endure  whilst  following  to  the 
grave  the  remains  of  their  dearest  relatives,  by  compel- 
ling them  at  the  same  time  to  pay  the  horse-duty."  Had 
Mr.  Gaselee  been  a  humorist,  Lord  Ellenborough  would 
have  laughed;  but  as  the  advocate  was  well  known  to 
have  no  turn  for  raillery,  the  Chief  Justice  gravely  ob- 
served, "Mr.  Gaselee,  you  incur  danger  by  sailing  in 
high  sentimental  latitudes." 

To  the  surgeon  in  the  witness-box  who  said,  "  I  em- 
ploy myself  as  a  surgeon,"  Lord  Ellenborough  retorted, 
"  But   does  anybody  else   employ  you  as  a  surgeon  ?" 

The  demand  to  be  examined  on  affirmation  being  pre- 


*  Robert  Dallas— one  of  Edward  Law's  coadjutors  in  the  defence  of  Hastings — 
gave  another  '  manager '  a  more  telling  blow.  Indignant  with  Burke  for  his  im- 
p'.ac  able  animosity  to  Hastings,  Dallas  (subsequently  Chief  Justice  of  the  Com- 
mon Pleas)  wrote  the  stinging  lines — 

"  Oft  have  we  wondered  that  on  Irish  ground 
No  poisonous  reptile  has  e'er  yet  been  found; 
Reveal'd  the  secret  stands  of  nature's  work — 
She  saved  her  venom  to  produce  her  Burke." 


356  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

ferred  by  a  Quaker  witness,  whose  dress  was  so  much 
like  the  costume  of  an  ordinary  conformist  that  the  officer 
of  the  court  had  begun  to  administer  the  usual  oath, 
Lord  EUenborough  inquired  of  the  '  friend,'  "  Do  you 
really  mean  to  impose  upon  the  court  by  appearing  here 
in  the  disguise  of  a  reasonable  being  ?"  Very  pungent  was 
his  ejaculation  at  a  cabinet  dinner  when  he  heard  that 
Lord  Kenyon  was  about  to  close  his  penurious  old  age 
by  dying.  "Die! — why  should  he  die? — what  would  he 
get  by  that  ?"  interposed  Lord  EUenborough,  adding  to 
the  pile  of  jests  by  which  men  have  endeavored  to  keep 
a  grim,  unpleasant  subject  out  of  sight — a  pile  to  which 
the  latest  mot  was  added  the  other  day  by  Lord  Palmer- 
ston,  who  during  his  last  attack  of  gout  exclaimed  play- 
fully. "  Die,  my  dear  doctor !  That's  the  last  thing  I 
think  of  doing."  Having  jested  about  Kenyon's  parsi- 
mony, as  the  old  man  lay  in  extremis,  EUenborough 
placed  another  joke  of  the  same  kind  upon  his  coffin. 
Hearing  that  through  the  blunder  of  an  illiterate  under- 
taker the  motto  on  Kenyon's  hatchment  in  Lincoln's  Inn 
Fields  had  been  painted  ''Mors  Janua  Vita,'  instead  of 
'  Mors  Janua  Vitse,'  he  exclaimed,  "  Bless  you,  there's 
no  mistake;  Kenyon's  will  directed  that  it  should  be 
'  Vita,'  so  that  his  estate  might  be  saved  the  expense  of 
a  diphthong."  Capital  also  was  his  reply  when  Erskine 
urged  him  to  accept  the  Great  Seal.  "  How  can  you," 
he  asked,  in  a  tone  of  solemn  entreaty,  "wish  me  to 
accept  the  office  of  Chancellor,  when  you  know,  Erskine, 
that  I  am  as  ignorant  of  its  duties  as  you  are  yourself  ?" 
At  the  time  of  uttering  these  words,  EUenborough  was 
well  aware  that  if  he  declined  them  Erskine  would  take 
the  seals.  Some  of  his  puns  were  very  poor.  For  in- 
stance, his  exclamation,  "  Cite  to  me  the  decisions  of  the 
judges  of  the  land:  not  the  judgments  of  the  Chief 
Justice  of  Ely,  who  is  fit  only  to  rule  a  copybook." 


Mirth.  357 

One  of  the  best  '  legal '  puns  on  record  is  unanimously 
attributed  by  the  gossipers  of  Westminster  Hall  to  Lord 
Chelmsford.  As  Sir  Frederick  Thesiger  he  was  engaged 
in  the  conduct  of  a  cause,  and  objected  to  the  irregularity 
of  a  learned  sergeant  who  in  examining  his  witnesses  re- 
peatedly put  leading  questions.  "  I  have  a  right,"  main- 
tained the  sergeant,  doggedly,  "  to  deal  with  my  witnesses 
as  I  please."  "To  that  I  offer  no  objection,"  retorted 
Sir  Frederick;  "  you  may  deal  as  you  like,  but  you  shan't 
lead."  Of  the  same  brilliant  conversationalist  Mr.  Grant- 
ley  Berkeley  has  recorded  a  good  story  in  '  My  Life  and 
Recollections.'  Walking  down  St.  James's  Street,  Lord 
Chelmsford  was  accosted  by  a  stranger,  who  exclaimed 
"  Mr.  Birch  I  believe  ?"  "  If  you  believe  that,  sir,  you'll 
believe  anything,"  replied  the  ex-Chancellor,  as  he  passed 
on. 

When  Thelwall,  instead  of  regarding  his  advocate  with 
grateful  silence,  insisted  on  interrupting  him  with  vexa- 
tious remarks  and  impertinent  criticisms,  Erskine  neither 
threw  up  his  brief  nor  lost  his  temper,  but  retorted  with 
an  innocent  flash  of  merriment.  To  a  slip  of  paper  on 
which  the  prisoner  had  written,  "  I'll  be  hanged  if  I  don't 
plead  my  own  cause,"  he  contented  himself  with  return- 
ing answer,  "  You'll  be  hanged  if  you  do."  His  mots 
were  often  excellent,  but  it  was  the  tone  and  joyous  ani- 
mation of  the  speaker  that  gave  them  their  charm.  It 
is  said  that  in  his  later  years,  when  his  habitual  loqua- 
ciousness occasionally  sank  into  garrulity,  he  used  to 
repeat  his  jests  with  imprudent  frequency,  shamelessly 
giving  his  companions  the  same  pun  with  each  course  of 
a  long  dinner.  There  is  a  story  that  after  his  retirement 
from  public  life  he  used  morning  after  morning  to  waylay 
visitors  on  their  road  through  the  garden  to  his  house, 
and,  pointing  to  his  horticultural  attire  and  the  spade  in 
his  hand  assure  them  that  he  was  '  enjoying  his  otium 


358  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

cum  digging  a  tatie.'  Indeed  the  tradition  lives  that  be- 
fore his  fall  from  the  woolsack,  pert  juniors  used  to  lay 
bets  as  to  the  number  of  times  he  could  fire  off  a  favorite 
old  pun  in  the  course  of  a  sitting  in  the  Court  of  Chan- 
cery, and  that  wily  leaders  habitually  strove  to  catch  his 
favor  by  giving  him  opportunities  for  facetious  interrup- 
tions during  their  arguments.  If  such  traditions  be 
truthful,  it  is  no  matter  for  surprise  that  Erskine's  court- 
jokes  have  come  down  to  us  with  so  many  variations. 
For  instance,  it  is  recorded  with  much  circumstantiality 
that  on  circuit,  accosting  a  junior  who  had  lost  his  port- 
manteau from  the  back  of  a  post-chaise,  he  said,  with 
mock  gravity,  "  Young  gentlemen,  henceforth  imitate  the 
elephant,  the  wisest  of  animals,  who  always  carries  his 
trunk  before  him  ;"  and  on  equally  good  authority  it  is 
stated  that  when  Polito,  the  keeper  of  the  Exeter  'Change 
Menagerie,  met  with  a  similar  accident  and  brought  an 
action  for  damages  against  the  proprietor  of  the  coach 
from  the  hind-boot  of  which  his  property  had  disappeared, 
Erskine,  speaking  for  the  defence,  told  the  jury  that  they 
would  not  be  justified  in  giving  a  verdict  favorable  to  the 
man,  who,  though  he  actually  possessed  an  elephant,  had 
neglected  to  imitate  its  prudent  example  and  carry  hie 
trunk  before  him. 

As  a  litt&rateur  Erskine  met  with  meagre  success  ;  but 
some  of  his  squibs  and  epigrams  are  greatly  above  the 
ordinary  level  of  '  vers  de  socike.'  For  instance  this  is 
his  : — 

"  De  Qoodam  Rege. 

"  I  may  not  do  right,  though  I  ne'er  can  do  wrong  ; 
I  never  can  die,  though  I  can  not  live  long  ; 
My  jowl  it  is  purple,  my  head  it  is  fat — 
Come,  riddle  my  riddle.     What  is  it?     What?    What?" 

The  liveliest  illustrations  of  Erskine's  proverbial  ego- 
tism are  the  squibs  of  political  caricaturists  ;  and  from 


Mirth.  359 

their  humorous  exaggerations  it  is  difficult  to  make  a 
correct  estimate  of  the  lengths  of  absurdity  to  which 
his  intellectual  vanity  and  self-consciousness  sometimes 
carried  him.  From  what  is  known  of  his  disposition  it 
seems  probable  that  the  sarcasms  aimed  by  public  writers 
at  his  infirmity  inclined  him  to  justify  their  attacks 
rather  than  to  disprove  them  by  his  subsequent  demea- 
nor, and  that  some  of  his  most  extravagant  outbursts  of 
self-assertion  were  designed  in  a  spirit  of  bravado  and 
reckless  good-nature  to  increase  the  laughter  which 
satirists  had  raised  against  him.  However  this  may  be, 
his  conduct  drew  upon  him  blows  that  would  have  ruffled 
the  composure  of  any  less  self-complacent  or  less  amiable 
man.  The  Tory  prints  habitually  spoke  of  him  as  Coun- 
sellor Ego  whilst  he  was  at  the  bar;  and  when  it  was 
known  that  he  had  accepted  the  seals,  the  opposition 
journals  announced  that  he  would  enter  the  house  as 
"  Baron  Ego,  of  Eye,  in  the  county  of  Suffolk."  Another 
of  his  nicknames  was  Lord  Clackmannan ;  and  Cobbett 
published  the  following  notice  of  an  harangue  made  by 
the  fluent  advocate  in  the  House  of  Commons  : — "  Mr. 
Erskine  delivered  a  most  animated  speech  in  the  House 
of  Commons  on  the  causes  and  consequences  of  the  late 
war,  which  lasted  thirteen  hours,  eighteen  minutes,  and  a 
second,  by  Mr.  John  Nichol's  stop-watch.  Mr.  Erskine 
closed  his  speech  with  a  dignified  climax  :  '  I  was  born 
free,  and,  by  G — d,  111  remain  so!' — [A  loud  cry  of 
'Hear!  hear!'  in  the  gallery,  in  which  were  citizens 
Tallien  and  Barrere.]  On  Monday  three  weeks  we  shall 
have  the  extreme  satisfaction  of  laying  before  the  public 
a  brief  analysis  of  the  above  speech,  our  letter-founder 
having  entered  into  an  engagement  to  furnish  a  fresh 
font  of  I's."  * 

*  In  the  '  AntMacobin,'  Canning,  in  the  mock  report  of  an  imaginary  speech, 
represented  Erskine  aa  addressing  the  '  Whig  Club  '  thus  : — "  For  his  part  he 


3G2  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

or  inefficient  judge),  gave  utterance  to  so  much  bad  law, 
as  Chairman  of  Quarter  Sessions  in  canny  Yorkshire,  that 
when  on  appeal  his  decisions  were  reversed  with  many 
polite  expressions  of  sincere  regret  by  the  King's  Bench, 
all  Westminster  Hall  laughed  in  concert  at  the  mistakes 
of  the  sagacious  Chief  of  the  Common  Pleas. 

But  no  lawyer,  brilliant  or  dull,  has  been  more  widely 
ridiculed  for  incompetence  than  Erskine.  Sir  Causticus 
Witherett,  being  asked  some  years  since  why  a  certain 
Chancellor,  unjustly  accused  of  intellectual  dimness  by 
his  political  adversaries  and  by  the  uninformed  public, 
preferred  his  seat  amongst  the  barons  to  his  official  place 
on  the  woolsack,  is  said  to  have  replied  :  "  The  Lord 
Chancellor  usually  takes  his  seat  amongst  the  peers  when- 
ever he  can  do  so  with  propriety,  because  he  is  a  highly 
nervous  man,  and  when  he  is  on  the  woolsack,  he  is  apt 
to  be  frightened  at  finding  himself  all  alone — in  the  dark." 
As  soon  as  Erskine  was  mentioned  as  a  likely  person  to 
be  Lord  Chancellor,  rumors  began  to  circulate  concerning 
his  total  unfitness  for  the  office  ;  and  no  sooner  had  he 
mounted  the  woolsack  than  the  wits  declared  him  to  be 
alone  and  in  the  dark.  Lord  Ellenborough's  sarcasm  was 
widely  repeated,  and  gave  the  cue  to  the  advocate's  de- 
tractors, who  had  little  difficulty  in  persuading  the  pub- 
he  that  any  intelligent  law-clerk  would  make  as  good  a 
Chancellor  as  Thomas  Erskine.  With  less  discretion 
than  good-humor,  Erskine  gave  countenance  to  the  repre- 
sentations of  his  enemies  by  ridiculing  his  own  unfitness 
for  the  office.  During  the  interval  between  his  appoint- 
ment and  his  first  appearance  as  judge  in  the  Court  of 
Chancery,  he  made  a  jocose  pretence  of  'reading  up'  for 
his  new  duties  :  and  whimsically  exaggerating  his  de- 
ficiencies, he  represented  himself  as  studying  books  with 
which  raw  students  have  some  degree  of  familiarity. 
Caught  with  '  Cruise's  Digest '  of  the  laws  relating  to  real 


Mirth.  363 

property,  open  in  his  hand,  he  observed  to  the  visitor  who 
had  interrupted  his  studies,  "  You  see,  I  am  taking  a  little 
from  my  cruise  daily,  without  any  prospect  of  coming  to 
the  end  of  it." 

In  the  autumn  of  1819  two  gentlemen  of  the  United 
States  having  differed  in  opinion  concerning  his  incom- 
petence in  the  Court  of  Chancery — the  one  of  them 
maintaining  that  the  greater  number  of  his  decrees  had 
been  reversed,  and  the  other  maintaining  that  so  many 
of  his  decisions  had  not  endured  reversal — the  dispute 
gave  rise  to  a  bet  of  three  dozen  of  port.  With  comical 
bad  taste  one  of  the  parties  to  the  bet — the  one  who  be- 
lieved that  the  Chancellor's  judgments  had  been  thus  fre- 
quently upset — wrote  to  Erskine  for  information  on  the 
point.  Instead  of  giving  the  answer  which  his  corres- 
pondent desired,  Erskine  informed  him  in  the  following 
terms  that  he  had  lost  his  wine  : — 

"Upper  Berkley  Street,  Nov.  13,  1819. 

Sib  : — I  certainly  was  appointed  Chancellor  tinder  the  administra- 
tion in  which  Mr.  Fox  was  Secretary  of  State,  in  1806,  and  could 
have  been  Chancellor  nnder  no  administration  in  which  he  had  not  a 
post ;  nor  would  have  accepted  without  him  any  office  whatsoever.  I 
believe  the  administration  was  said,  by  all  the  Blockheads,  to  be  made 
up  of  all  the  Talents  in  the  country. 

"But  you  have  certainly  lost  your  bet  on  the  subject  of  my  de- 
crees. None  of  them  were  appealed  against,  except  one,  upon  a 
branch  of  Mr.  Thellusson's  will — but  it  was  affirmed  without  a  dis- 
sentient voice,  on  the  motion  of  Lord  Eldon,  then  and  now  Lord 
Chancellor.  If  you  think  I  was  no  lawyer,  you  may  continue  to 
think  so.  It  is  plain  you  are  no  lawyer  yourself ;  but  I  wish  every 
man  to  retain  his  opinion,  though  at  the  cost  of  three  dozen  of  port. 
Your  humble  servant, 

"Ebskeje. 

"To  save  you  from  spending  your  money  on  bets  which  you  are 
sure  to  lose,  remember  that  no  man  can  be  a  great  advocate  who  is 
no  lawyer.     The  thing  is  impossible." 


364  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

Of  the  many  good  stories  current  about  chiefs  of  the 
law  who  are  still  alive,  the  present  writer,  for  obvious  rea- 
sons, abstains  from  taking  notice  ;  but  one  humorous  an- 
ecdote concerning  a  lively  judge  may  with  propriety  be 
inserted  in  these  pages,  since  it  fell  from  his  own  lips 
when  he  was  making  a  speech  from  the  chair  at  a  public 
dinner.  Between  sixty-five  and  seventy  years  from  the 
present  time,  when  Sir  Frederick  Pollock  was  a  boy  at 
St.  Paul's  school,  he  drew  upon  himself  the  displeasure 
of  Dr.  Roberts,  the  somewhat  irascible  head-master  of 
the  school,  who  frankly  told  Sir  Frederick's  father,  "  Sir, 
you'll  live  to  see  that  boy  of  yours  hanged."  Years  after- 
wards, when  the  boy  of  whom  this  dismal  prophecy  was 
made  had  distinguished  himself  at  Cambridge  and  the 
bar,  Dr.  Roberts,  meeting  Sir  Frederick's  mother  in  so- 
ciety, overwhelmed  her  with  congratulations  upon  her 
son's  success,  and  fortunately  oblivious  of  his  former 
misunderstanding  with  his  pupil,  concluded  his  polite 
speeches  by  saying — "  Ah !  madam,  I  always  said  he'd 
fill  an  elevated  situation."  Told  by  the  venerable  judge 
at  a  recent  dinner  of  '  Old  Paulines,'  this  story  was  not 
less  effective  than  the  best  of  those  post-prandial  sallies 
with  which  William  St.  Julien  Arabia — the  Assistant 
Judge  of  Old  Bailey  notoriety— used  to  convulse  his 
auditors  something  more  than  thirty  years  since.  In 
the  '  Arabiniana '  it  is  recorded  how  this  judge,  in  sen- 
tencing an  unfortunate  woman  to  a  long  term  of  trans- 
portation, concluded  his  address  with — "You  must  go 
out  of  the  country.  You  have  disgraced  even  your  own 
sex." 

Let  this  chapter  close  with  a  lawyer's  testimony  to  the 
moral  qualities  of  his  brethren.  In  the  garden  of  Clem- 
ent's Inn  may  still  be  seen  the  statue  of  a  negro,  support- 
ing a  sun-dial,  upon  which  a  legal  wit  inscribed  the  fol- 
lowing lines  : — 


Mirth.  365 

"  In  vain,  poor  sable  son  of  woe, 

Thou  seek'st  the  tender  tear  ; 
From  thee  in  vain  with  pangs  they  flow, 

For  mercy  dwells  not  here. 
From  cannibals  thou  fled'st  in  vain  ; 

Lawyers  less  quarter  give  ; 
The  first  won't  eat  you  till  you're  slain, 

The  last  will  do't  alive." 

Unfortunately  these  lines  have  been  obliterated. 


CHAPTER  XLLT. 

WITNESSES. 


IN  the  days  when  Mr.  Davenport  Hill,  the  Recorder  of 
Birmingham,  made  a  professional  reputation  for  him- 
self in  the  committee-rooms  of  the  Houses  of  Parliament, 
he  had  many  a  sharp  tussle  with  one  of  those  venal  wit- 
nesses who,  during  the  period  of  excitement  that  termi- 
nated in  the  disastrous  railway  panic,  were  ready  to  give 
scientific  evidence  on  engineering  questions,  with  less  re- 
gard to  truth  than  to  the  interests  of  the  persons  who 
paid  for  their  evidence.  Having  by  mendacious  evidence 
gravely  injured  a  cause  in  which  Mr.  Hill  was  interested 
as  counsel,  and  Mr.  Tite,  the  eminent  architect,  and  pres- 
ent member  for  Bath,  was  concerned  as  a  projector,  this 
witness  was  struck  with  apoplexy  and  died — before  he 
could  complete  the  mischief  which  he  had  so  adroitly 
begun.  Under  the  circumstances,  his  sudden  withdrawal 
from  the  world  was  not  an  occasion  for  universal  regret. 
"  Well,  Hill,  have  you  heard  the  news  ?"  inquired  Mr.  Tite 
of  the  barrister,  whom  he  encountered  in  Middle  Temple 
Lane  on  the  morning  after  the  engineer's  death.  "  Have 
you  heard  that died  yesterday  of    apoplexy  ?" 


366  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

"I  can't  say,"  was  the  rejoinder,  "that  I  shall  shed  many 
tears  for  his  loss.  He  was  an  arrant  scoundrel."  "  Come, 
come,"  replied  the  architect,  charitably,  "you  have  always 
been  too  hard  on  that  man.  He  was  by  no  means  so  bad 
a  fellow  as  you  would  make  him  out.  I  do  verily  believe  ' 
that  in  the  whole  course  of  his  life  that  man  never  told 
a  he — out  of  the  witness-box."  Strange  to  say,  this  com-  - 
ical  testimony  to  character  was  quite  justified  by  the  fact. 
This  man,  who  bed  in  public  as  a  matter  of  business,  was 
punctiliously  honorable  in  private  life. 

Of  the  simplest  method  of  tampering  with  witnesses 
an  instance  is  found  in  a  case  which  occurred  while  Sir 
Edward  Coke  was  Chief  Justice  of  the  King's  Bench. 
Loitering  about  "Westminster  Hall,  one  of  the  parties  in 
an  action  stumbled  upon  the  witness  whose  temporary 
withdrawal  from  the  ways  of  men  he  was  most  anxious 
to  effect.  With  a  perfect  perception  of  the  proper  use  of 
hospitality,  he  accosted  this  witness  (a  staring,  open- 
mouthed  countryman),  with  suitable  professions  of  friend- 
liness, and  carrying  him  into  an  adjacent  tavern,  set  him 
down  before  a  bottle  of  wine.  As  soon  as  the  sack  had 
begun  to  quicken  his  guest's  circulation,  the  crafty  fellow 
hastened  into  court  with  the  intelligence  that  the  witness, 
whom  he  had  left  drinking  in  a  room  not  two  hundred 
yards  distant,  was  in  a  fit  and  lying  at  death's  door.  The 
court  being  asked  to  wait,  the  impudent  rascal  protested 
that  to  wait  would  be  useless  ;  and  the  Chief  Justice, 
taking  his  view  of  the  case,  proceeded  to  give  judgment 
without  hearing  the  most  important  evidence  in  the 
cause.  * 

In  badgering  a  witness  with  noisy  derision,  no  barrister 
of  Charles  n.'s  time  could  surpass  George  Jeffreys  ;  but 
on  more  than  one  occasion  that  gentleman,  in  his  most 
overbearing  moments,  met  with  his  master  in  the  witness 
whom  he   meant  to  brow-beat.      "You  fellow  in  the 


Mirth.  367 

leathern  doublet,"  he  is  said  to  have  exclaimed  to  a  coun- 
tryman whom  he  was  about  to  cross-examine,  "  Pray, 
what  are  you  paid  for  swearing  ?"  "  God  bless  you,  sir, 
and  make  you  an  honest  man,"  answered  the  farmer,  look- 
ing the  barrister  full  in  the  face,  and  speaking  with  a  voice 
of  hearty  good-humor  ;  "  if  you  had  no  more  for  lying 
than  I  have  for  swearing,  you  would  wear  a  leather  doub- 
let as  well  as  I  " 

Sometimes  Erskine's  treatment  of  witnesses  was  very 
jocular,  and  sometimes  very  unfair  ;  but  his  jocoseness 
was  usually  so  distinct  from  mere  flippant  derisiveness, 
and  his  unfairness  was  redeemed  by  such  delicacy  of  wit 
and  courtesy  of  manner,  that  his  most  malicious  jeux 
d'esprit  seldom  raised  the  anger  of  the  witnesses  at  whom 
'they  were  aimed.  A  religious  enthusiast  objecting  to  be 
sworn  in  the  usual  manner,  but  stating  that  though  he 
would  not  "  kiss  the  book,"  he  would  "hold  up  his  hand" 
and  swear,  Erskine  asked  him  to  give  his  reason  for  pre- 
ferring so  eccentric  a  way  to  the  ordinary  mode  of  giving 
testimony.  "It  is  written  in  the  book  of  Revelations," 
answered  the  man,  "  that  the  angel  standing  on  the  sea 
held  up  his  hand."  "  But  that  does  not  apply  to  your 
case,"  urged  the  advocate  ;  "for  in  the  first  place,  you  are 
no  angel ;  secondly,  you  cannot  tell  how  the  angel  would 
have  sworn  if  he  had  stood  on  dry  ground,  as  you  do." 
Not  shaken  by  this  reply,  which  cannot  be  called  unfair, 
and  which,  notwithstanding  its  jocoseness,  was  exactly 
the  answer  which  the  gravest  divine  would  have  made  to 
such  scruples,  the  witness  persisted  in  his  position  ;  and 
on  being  permitted  to  give  evidence  in  his  own  peculiar 
way,  he  had  enough  influence  with  the  jury  to  induce 
them  to  give  a  verdict  adverse  to  Erskine's  wishes. 

Less  fair  but  more  successful  was  Erskine's  treatment 
of  the  commercial  traveller,  who  appeared  in  the  witness 
box  dressed  in  the  height    of  fashion,  and  wearing  a 


A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

starched  white  necktie  folded  with  the  '  Brummel  fold.' 
In  an  instant  reading  the  character  of  the  man,  on  whom 
he  had  never  before  set  eyes,  and  knowing  how  necessary 
it  was  to  put  him  in  a  state  of  extreme  agitation  and  con- 
fusion, before  touching  on  the  facts  concerning  which  he 
had  come  to  give  evidence,  Erskine  rose,  surveyed  the 
coxcomb,  and  said,  with  an  air  of  careless  amusement, 
"  You  were  born  and  bred  in  Manchester,  /  perceive. ' 
Greatly  astonished  at  this  opening  remark,  the  man 
answered,  nervously,  that  he  was  "  a  Manchester  man- 
born  and  bred  in  Manchester/'  "Exaetly,"  observed 
Erskine,  in  a  conversational  tone,  and  as  though  he  were 
imparting  information  to  a  personal  friend — "  exactly  so; 
I  knew  it  from  the  absurd  tie  of  your  neckcloth."  The 
roars  of  laughter  which  followed  this  rejoinder  so  com- 
pletely effected  the  speaker's  purpose  that  the  confounded 
bagman  could  not  tell  his  right  hand  from  his  left. 
Equally  effective  was  Erskine's  sharp  question,  put 
quickly  to  the  witness,  who,  in  an  action  for  payment  of 
a  tailor's  bill,  swore  that  a  certain  dress-coat  was  badly 
made — one  of  the  sleeves  being  longer-  than  the  other. 
"  You  will,"  said  Erskine,  slowly,  having  risen  to  cross- 
examine,  "  swear — that  one  of  the  sleeves  was — longer — 
than  the  other?  Witness.  "I  do  swear  it."  Erskine, 
quickly,  and  with  a  flash  of  indignation,  "  Then,  sir,  I 
am  to  understand  that  you  positively  deny  that  one  of 
the  sleeves  was  shorter  than  the  other  ?"  Startled  into  a 
self-contradiction  by  the  suddenness  and  impetuosity  of 
this  thrust,  the  witness  said,  "  I  do  deny  it "  Erskine, 
raising  his  voice  as  the  tumultuous  laughter  died  away, 
"  Thank  you,  sir;  I  don't  want  to  trouble  you  with 
another  question."  One  of  Erskine's  smartest  puns  re- 
ferred to  a  question  of  evidence.  "A  case,"  he  observed, 
in  a  speech  made  during  his  latter  years,  "being  laid 
before  me  by  my  veteran  friend,  the  Duke  of  Queens- 


Mirth.  369 

bury — better  known  as  '  old  Q' — as  to  whether  he  could 
sue  a  tradesman  for  breach  of  contract  about  the  painting 
of  his  house;  and  the  evidence  being  totally  insufficient 
to  support  the  case,  I  wrote  thus:  'I  am  of  opinion 
that  this  action  will  not  lie  unless  the  witnesses  do.' " 
It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  this  witticism  was  but  a 
revival  (with  a  modification)  of  a  pun  attributed  to  Lord 
Chancellor  Hatton  in  Bacon's  '  Apophthegmes.' 

In  this  country  many  years  have  elapsed  since  duels 
have  taken  place  betwixt  gentlemen  of  the  long  robe,  or 
between  barristers  and  witnesses  in  consequence  of  words 
uttered  in  the  heat  of  forensic  strife;  but  in  the  last 
century,  and  in  the  opening  years  of  the  present,  it  was 
no  very  rare  occurrence  for  a  barrister  to  be  called  upon 
for  '  satisfaction  *  by  a  person  whom  he  had  insulted  in 
the  course  of  his  professional  duty.  During  George  II. 's 
reign,  young  Robert  Henley  so  mercilessly  badgered  one 
Zephaniah  Reeve,  whom  he  had  occasior  to  cross-examine 
in  a  trial  at  Bristol,  that  the  infuriated  witness — Quaker 
and  peace-loving  merchant  though  he  was — sent  his 
persecutor  a  challenge  immediately  upon  leaving  court. 
Rather  than  incur  the  ridicule  of  'going  out  with  a 
Quaker,'  and  the  sin  of  shooting  at  a  man  whom  he  had 
actually  treated  with  unjustifiable  freedom,  Henley  re- 
treated from  an  embarrassing  position  by  making  a  hand- 
some apology;  and  years  afterwards,  when  he  had  risen 
to  the  woolsack,  he  entertained  his  old  acquaintance, 
Zephaniah  Reeve,  at  a  fashionable  dinner-party,  when  he 
assembled  guests  were  greatly  amused  by  the  Lord  Chan- 
cellor's account  of  the  commencement  of  his  acquaintance 
with  his  Quaker  friend. 

Between  thirty  and  forty  years  later  Thurlow  was 
'called  out'  by  the  Duke  of  Hamilton's  agent,  Mr. 
Andrew  Stewart,  whom  he  had  grievously  offended  by 
his   conduct  of  the   Great  Douglas  Case.     On  Jan.  14, 


370  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

1769-1770,  Thurlow  and  his  adversary  met  in  Hdye 
Park.  On  his  way  to  the  appointed  place,  the  barrister 
stopped  at  a  tavern  near  Hyde  Park  Corner,  and  "ate 
an  enormous  breakfast,"  after  which  preparation  for 
business,  he  hastened  to  the  field  of  action.  Accounts 
agree  in  saying  that  he  behaved  well  upon  th(T  ground. 
Long  after  the  bloodless  rencontre,  the  Scotch  agent,  not 
a  little  proud  of  his  '  affair '  with  a  future  Lord  Chan- 
cellor, said,  "  Mr.  Thurlow  advanced  and  stood  up  to  me 
like  an  elephant."  .  But  the  elephant  and  the  mouse 
parted  without  hurting  each  other;  the  encounter  being 
thus  faithfully  described  in  the  '  Scots'  Magazine :"  "  On 
Sunday  morning,  January  14,  the  parties  met  with  swords 
and  pistols,  in  Hyde  Park,  one  of  them  having  for  his 

second  his  brother,  Colonel  S ,  and  the  other  having 

for  his  Mr.  L ,  member  for  a  city  in  Kent.     Having 

discharged  pistols,  at  ten  yards'  distance,  without  effect, 
they  drew  their  swords,  but  the  seconds  interposed,  and 
put  an  end  to  the  affair." 

One  of  the  best '  Northern  Circuit  stories  *  pinned  upon 
Lord  Eldon  relates  to  a  challenge  which  an  indignant 
suitor  is  said  to  have  sent  to  Law  and  John  Scott.  In 
a  trial  at  York  that  arose  from  a  horse-race,  it  was  stated 
in  evidence  that  one  of  the  conditions  of  the  race 
required  that  "  each  horse  should  be  ridden  by  a  gentle- 
man." The  race  having  been  run,  the  holders  refused  to 
pay  the  stakes  to  the  winner  on  the  ground  that  he  was 
not  a  gentleman;  whereupon  the  equestrian  whose  gen- 
tility was  thus  called  in  question  brought  an  action 
for  the  money.  After  a  very  humorous  inquiry,  which 
terminated  in  a  verdict  for  the  defendants,  the  plaintiff 
was  said  to  have  challenged  the  defendants'  counsel, 
Messrs.  Scott  and  Law,  for  maintaining  that  he  was  no 
gentleman;  to  which  invitation,  it  also  averred,  reply 
was  made  that    the  challengees   "  could  not  think  of 


Mirth.  371 

fighting  one  who  had  been  found  no  gentleman  by  the 
solemn  verdict  of  twelve  of  his  countrymen."  Inquiry, 
however,  has  deprived  this  delicious  story  of  much  of  its 
piquancy.  Eldon  had  no  part  in  the  offence;  and  Law, 
who  was  the  sole  utterer  of  the  obnoxious  words,  received 
no  invitation  to  fight.  "No  message  was  sent,"  says  a 
writer,  supposed  to  be  Lord  "Brougham,  in  the  'Law 
Magazine,'  "  and  no  attempt  was  made  to  provoke  a 
breach  of  the  peace.  It  is  very  possible  Lord  Eldon 
may  have  said,  and  Lord  Ellenborough  too,  that  they 
were  not  bound  to  treat  one  in  such  a  predicament  as  a 
gentleman,  and  hence  the  story  has  arisen  in  the  lady's 
mind.  The  fact  was  as  well  known  on  the  Northern 
Circuit  as  the  answer  of  a  witness  to  a  question,  whether 
the  party  had  a  right  by  his  circumstances  to  keep  a 
pack  of  fox-hounds;  'No  more  right  than  I  to  keep  a 
pack  of  archbishops.'  " 

Curran  is  said  to  have  received  a  call,  before  he  left 
his  bed  one  morning,  from  a  gentleman  whom  he  had 
cross-examined  with  needlees  cruelty  and  unjustifiable 
insolence  on  the  previous  day.  "Sir!"  said  this  irate 
man,  presenting  himself  in  Curran's  bed-room,  and  rousing 
the  barrister  from  slumber  to  a  consciousness  that  he  was 
in  a  very  awkward  position,  "  I  am  the  gintleman  whom 
you  insulted  yesterday  in  His  Majesty's  court  of  justice, 
in  the  presence  of  the  whole  county,  and  I  am  here  to 
thrash  you  soundly!"  Thus  speaking,  the  Herculean 
intruder  waved  a  horsewhip  over  the  recumbent  lawyer. 
"You  don't  mean  to  strike  a  man  when  he  is  lying 
down?"  inquired  Curran.  "No,  bedad;  I'll  just  wait 
till  you've  got  out  of  bed  and  then  I'll  give  it  to  you 
sharp  and  fast."      Curran's  eye  twinkled  mischievously 

as  he  rejoined :  "  If  that's  the  case,  by I'll  lie  here 

all  day."  So  tickled  was  the  visitor  with  this  humorous 
announcement,  that  he  dropped  his  horsewhip,  and  dis- 


372  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

missing  anger  with  a  hearty  roar  of  laughter,  asked  the 
counsellor  to  shake  hands  with  him. 

In  the  December  of  1663,  Pepys  was  present  at  a  trial 
in  Guildhall  concerning  the  fraud  of  a  merchant-adven- 
turer, who  having  insured  his  vessel  for  £2400  when, 
together  with  her  cargo,  she  was  worth  no  more  than 
£500,  had  endeavored  to' wreck  her  off  the  French  coast. 
From  Pepys's  record  it  appears  that  this  was  a  novel 
piece  of  rascality  at  that  time,  and  consequently  created 
lively  sensation  in  general  society,  as  well  as  in  legal  and 
commercial  coteries.  "All  the  great  counsel  in  "the 
kingdom  "  were  employed  in  the  cause ;  and  though  mar- 
itime causes  then,  as  now,  usually  involved  much  hard 
swearing,  the  case  was  notable  for  the  prodigious  amount 
of  perjury  which  it  elicited.  For  the  most  part  the 
witnesses  were  sailors,  who,  besides  swearing  with  stolid 
indifference  to  truth,  caused  much  amusement  by  the  in- 
coherence of  their  statements  and  by  their  free  use  of 
nautical  expressions,  which  were  quite  unintelligible  to 
Chief  Justice  (Sir  Robert)  Hyde.  "  It  was,"  says  Pepys, 
"  pleasant  to  see  what  mad  sort  of  testimonys  the  seamen 
did  give,  and  could  not  be  got  to  speak  in  order;  and 
then  their  terms  such  as  the  judge  could  not  understand, 
and  to  hear  how  sillily  the  counsel  and  judge  would 
speak  as  to  the  terms  necessary  in  the  matter,  would 
make  one  laugh;  and  above  all  a  Frenchman,  that  was 
forced  to  speak  in  French,  and  took  an  English  oath  ho 
did  not  understand,  and  had  an  interpreter  sworn  to  tell 
us  what  he  said,  which  was  the  best  testimony  of  all."  A 
century  later  Lord  Mansfield  was  presiding  at  a  trial  con- 
sequent upon  a  collision  of  two  ships  at  sea,  when  a 
common  sailor,  whilst  giving  testimony,  said,  "  At  the 
time  I  was -standing  abaft  the  binnacle;"  whereupon  his 
lordship,  with  a  proper  desire  to  master  the  facts  of  the 
case,  observed,  "Stay,  stay  a  minute,  witness:  you  say 


Mirth.  373 

that  at  the  time  in  question  you  were  standing  abaft  the 
binnacle;  now  tell  me,  where  is  abaft  the  binnacle?" 
This  was  too  much  for  the  gravity  of  '  the  salt,'  who 
immediately  before  climbing  into  the  witness-box  had 
taken  a  copious  draught  of  neat  rum.  Removing  his 
eyes  from  the  bench,  and  turning  round  upon  the 
crowded  court  with  an  expression  of  intense  amusement, 
he  exclaimed  at  the  top  of  his  voice,  "He's  a  pretty 
fellow  for  a  judge !  Bless  my  jolly  old  eyes ! — [the 
reader  may  substitute  a  familiar  form  of  '  imprecation  on 
eye-sight'] — you  have  got  a  pretty  sort  of  a  land-lubber 
for  a  judge !  He  wants  me  to  tell  him  where  abaft  the 
binnacle  is !"  Not  less  amused  than  the  witness,  Lord 
Mansfield  rejoined,  "  Well,  my  friend,  you  must  fit  me 
for  my  office  by  telling  me  where  abaft  the  binnacle  is; 
you've  already  shown  me  the  meaning  of  half  seas  over." 

With  less  good-humor  the  same  Chief  Justice  re- 
venged himself  on  Dr.  Brocklesby,  who,  whilst  standing 
in  the  witness-box  of  the  Court  of  King's  Bench,  in- 
curred the  Chief  Justice's  displeasure  by  referring  to 
their  private  intercourse.  Some  accounts  say  that  the 
medical  witness  merely  nodded  to  the  Chief  Justice,  as 
he  might  have  done  with  propriety  had  they  been  taking 
seats  at  a  convivial  table;  other  accounts,  with  less 
appearance  of  probability,  maintain  that  in  a  voice 
audible  to  the  bar,  he  reminded  the  Chief  Justice  of 
certain  jolly  hours  which  they  had  spent  together  during 
the  previous  evening.  Anyhow,  Lord  Mansfield  was 
hurt,  and  showed  his  resentment  in  his  '  summing-up ' 
by  thus  addressing  the  Jury:  "The  next  witness  is  one 
i?ocklesby,  or  brocklesby — brocklesby  or  i?ocklesby,  I 
am  not  sure  which;  and  first,  he  swears  that  he  is  a  physi- 
cian." 

On  one  occasion  Lord  Mansfield  covered  his  retreat 
from  an  untenable  position  with  a  sparkling  pleasantry. 


374  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

An  old  witness  named  Elm  having  given  his  evidence 
with  remarkable  clearness,  although  he  was  more  than 
eighty  years  of  age,  Lord  Mansfield  examined  .him  as  to 
his  habitual  mode  of  living,  and  found  that  he  had 
throughout  life  been  an  early  riser  and  a  singularly  tem- 
perate man.  "  Ay,"  observed  the  Chief  Justice,  in  a  tone 
of  approval,  "  I  have  always  found  that  without  temper- 
ance and  early  habits,  longevity  is  never  attained."  The 
next  witness,  the  elder  brother  of  this  model  of  temper- 
ance, was  then  called,  and  he  almost  surpassed  his  brother 
as  an  intelligent  and  clear-headed  utterer  of  evidence. 
"  I  suppose,"  observed  Lord  Mansfield,  "  that  you  also  are 
an  early  riser."  "No,  my  lord,"  answered  the  veteran, 
stoutly  ;  "  I  like  my  bed  at  all  hours,  and  special-Zie  I  like 
it  of  a  morning."  "  Ah  ;  but,  like  your  brother,  you  are 
a  very  temperate  man  ?"  quickly  asked  the  judge,  look- 
ing out  anxiously  for  the  safety  of  the  more  important 
part  of  his  theory.  "  My  lord,"  responded  this  ancient 
Elm,  disdaining  to  plead  guilty  to  a  charge  of  habitual 
sobriety,  "  I  am  a  very  old  man,  and  my  memory  is  as 
clear  as  a  bell,  but  I  can't  remember  the  night  when  I've 
gone  to  bed  without  being  more  or  less  drunk."  Lord 
Mansfield  was  silent.  "  Ah,  my  lord,"  Mr.  Dunning  ex- 
claimed, "  this  old  man's  case  supports  a  theory  upheld 
by  many  persons,  that  habitual  intemperance  is  favorable 
to  longevity."  "  No,  no,"  replied  the  Chief  Justice,  with 
a  smile,  "  this  old  man  and  his  brother  merely  teach  us 
what  every  carpenter  knows — that  Elm,  whether  it  be  wet 
or  dry,  is  a  very  tough  wood."  Another  version  of  this, 
excellent  story  makes  Lord  Mansfield  inquire  of  the  elder 
Elm,  "Then  how  do  you  account  for  your  prolonged  ten- 
ure of  existence  ?"  to  which  question  Elm  is  made  to  re- 
spond, more  like  a  lawyer  than  a  simple  witness,  "  I  ac- 
count for  it  by  the  terms  of  the  original  lease." 

Few  stories  relating  to  witnesses  are  more  laughable 


Mirth.  375 

than  that  which  describes  the  arithmetical  process  by 
which  Mr.  Baron  Perrot  arrived  at  the  value  of  certain 
conflicting  evidence.  "  Gentlemen  of  the  jury,"  this 
judge  is  reported  to  have  said,  in  summing  up  the  evi- 
dence in  a  trial  where  the  witnesses  had  sworn  with  noble 
tenacity  of  purpose,  "there  are  fifteen  witnesses  who 
swear  that  the  watercourse  used  to  flow  in  a  ditch  on  the 
north  side  of  the  hedge.  On  the  other  hand,  gentlemen, 
there  are  nine  witnesses  who  swear  that  the  watercourse 
used  to  flow  on  the  south  side  of  the  hedge.  Now,  gen- 
tlemen, if  you  subtract  nine  from  fifteen,  there  remain  six 
witnesses  wholly  uncontradicted  ;  and  I  recommend  you 
to  give  your  verdict  for  the  party  who  called  those  six 
witnesses." 

Whichever  of  the  half-dozen  ways  in  which  it  is  told 
be  accepted  as  the  right  one,  the  following  story  exempli- 
fies the  difficulty  which  occasionally  arises  in  courts  of 
justice,  when  witnesses  use  provincial  terms  with  which 
the  judge  is  not  familiar.  Mr.  William  Russell,  in  past 
days  deputy-surveyor  of  '  canny  Newcastle,'  and  a  genu- 
ine Northumbrian  in  dialect,  brogue,  and  shrewdness,  was 
giving  his  evidence  at  an  important  trial  in  the  Newcastle 
courthouse,  when  he  said — "  As  I  was  going  along  the 
quay,  I  saw  a  hubbleshew  coming  out  of  a  chare-foot." 
Not  aware  that  on  Tyne-side  the  word  '  hubbleshew ' 
meant  'a  concourse  of  riotous  persons;'  that  the  narrow 
alleys  or  lanes  of  Newcastle  '  old  town '  were  called  by 
their  inhabitants  '  chares;'  and  that  the  lower  end  of  each 
alley,  where  it  opened  upon  quay-side,  was  termed  a 
'chare-foot;'  the  judge,  seeing  only  one  part  of  the  puz- 
zle, inquired  the  meaning  of  the  word  'hubbleshew.' 
"A  crowd  of  disorderly  persons,"  answered  the  deputy- 
surveyor.  "  And  you  mean  to  say,"  inquired  the  judge 
of  assize,  with  a  voice  and -loot  of  surprise,  "that  you 
saw  a  crowd  of  people  come  out  of  a  chair-foot  ?"     "  I 


376  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

m 
do,  my  lord,"  responded  the  witness.  "Gentlemen of  the 
jury,  said  his  lordship,  turning  to  the  '  twelve  good  men 
in  the  box,  "  it  must  be  needless  for  me  to  inform  you — 
that  this  witness  is  insane  !" 

The  report  of  a  trial  which  occurred  at  Newcastle  As- 
sizes towards  the  close  of  the  last  century  gives  the  fol- 
lowing succession  of  questions  and  answers  : — Barrister. 
■ — "  What  is  your  name  ?"  Witness. — "  Adam,  sir — Adain 
Thompson."  Barrister. — "  Where  do  you  live  ?"  Witness. 
— "In  Paradise."  Barrister  (with  facetious  tone). — 
"  And  pray,  Mr.  Adam,  how  long  have  you  dwelt  in  Para- 
dise?" Witness. — "Ever  since  the  flood."  Paradise  is 
the  name  of  a  village  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  New- 
castle ;  and  '  the  flood '  referred  to  by  the  witness  was 
the  inundation  (memorable  in  local  annals)  of  the  Tyne, 
which  in  the  year  1771  swept  away  the  old  Tyne  Bridge. 


N  CHAPTEK  XLm. 


CIECUITEERS. 


EXPOSED  to  some  of  the  discomforts,  if  not  all  the 
dangers,*  of  travel ;  required  to  ride  over  black  and 
cheerless  tracts  of  moor  and  heath  :  now  belated  in 
marshy  districts,  and  now  exchanging  shots  with  gentle- 
men of  the  road  ;  sleeping,  as  luck  favored  them,  in 
way-side  taverns,  country  mansions,  or  the  superior  hotels 


*  Lord  Eldon,  when  he  was  handsome  Jack  Scott  of  the  Northern  Circuit,  was 
about  to  make  a  short  cut  over  the  sands  from  Ulverstone  to  Lancaster  at  the 
flow  of  the  tide,  when  he  was  restrained  from  acting  on  his  rash  resolve  by  the 
representations  of  an  hotel  keeper.  "  Danger,  danger,"  asked  Scott,  impatiently — 
"  have  you  ever  lost  anybody  there  ?"  Mine  host  answered  slowly,  "  Nae,  sir,  nae- 
body  has  been  lost  on  the  sands,  the  puir  bodies  have  been  found  at  low  water.''' 


Mirth.  377 

of  provincial  towns — the  circuiteers  of  olden  time  found 
their  advantage  in  cultivating  social  hilarity  and  estab- 
lishing an  etiquette  that  encouraged  good-fellowship  in 
their  itinerant  societies.  At  an  early  date  they  are  found 
varying  the  monotony  of  cross-country  rides  with  racing- 
matches  and  drinking  bouts,  cock-fights  and  fox-hunting; 
and  enlivening  assize  towns  and  country  houses  with 
balls  and  plays,  frolic  and  song.  A  prodigious  amount 
of  feasting  was  perpetrated  on  an  ordinary  circuit-round 
of  the  seventeenth  century;  and  at  circuit-messes,  judges' 
dinners,  and  sheriffs'  banquets,  saucy  juniors  were  allowed 
a  license  of  speech  to  staid  leaders  and  grave  dignitaries 
that  was  altogether  exceptional  to  the  prevailing  tone  of 
manners. 

In  the  days  when  Chief  Justice  Hyde,  Clarendon's 
cousin,  used  to  ride  the  Norfolk  Circuit,  old  Sergeant 
Earl  was  the  leader,  or,  to  use  the  slang  of  the  period^ 
'cock  of  the  round'.  A  keen,  close-fisted,  tough  practi- 
tioner, this  sergeant  used  to  ride  from  town  to  town, 
chuckling  over  the  knowledge  that  he  was  earning  more 
and  spending  less  than  any  other  member  of  the  circuit, 
One  biscuit  was  all  the  refreshment  which  he  permitted 
himself  on  the  road  from  Cambridge  to  Norwich  ;  al- 
though he  consented  to  dismount  at  the  end  of  every 
ten  miles  to  stretch  his  limbs.  Sidling  up  to  Sergeant 
Earl,  as  there  was  no  greater  man  for  him  to  toady, 
Francis  North  offered  himself  as  the  old  man's  travelling 
companion  from  the  university  to  the  manufacturing 
town;  and  when  Earl  with  a  grim  smile  accepted  the 
•  courteous  suggestion,  the  young  man  congratulated  him- 
self. On  the  following  mottling,  however,  he  had  reason 
to  question  his  good  fortune  when  the  sergeant's  clerk 
brought  him  a  cake,  and  remarked,  significantly,  "  Put 
it  in  your  pocket,  sir ;  you'll  want  it ;  for  my  master 
won't  draw  bit  till  he  comes  to  Norwich."    It  was  a  hard 


378  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

day's  work ;  but  young  Frank  North  was  rewarded  for 
his  civility  to  the  sergeant,  who  condescended  to  instruct 
his  apt  pupil  in  the  tricks  and  chicaneries  of  their  pro- 
fession. "  Sir,"  inquired  North  at  the  close  of  the  ex- 
cursion, emboldened  by  the  rich  man's  affability,  "by 
what  system  do  you  keep  your  accounts,  which  must  be 
very  complex,  as  you  have  lands,  securities,  and  great 
comings-in  of  all  kinds  ?"  "  Accounts !  boy,"  answered 
the  grey-headed  curmudgeon  ;  "I  get  as  much  as  I  can, 
and  I  spend  as  little  as  I  can  ;  that's  how  I  keep  my  ac- 
counts." 

When  North  had  raised  himself  to  the  Chiefship  of  the 
Common  Pleas  he  chose  the  Western  Circuit,  "  not  for 
the  common  cause,  it  being  a  long  circuit,  and  beneficial 
for  the  officers  and  servants,  but  because  he  knew  the 
gentlemen  to  be  loyal  and  conformable,  and  that  he  should 
have  fair  quarter  amonst  them  ;"  and  so  much  favor  did 
he  win  amongst  the  loyal  and  conformable  gentry  that 
old  Bishop  Mew — the  prelate  of  Winchester,  popularly 
known  as  Bishop  Patch,  because  he  always  wore  a  patch 
of  black  court-plaster  over  the  scar  of  a  wound  which  he 
received  on  one  of  his  cheeks,  whilst  fighting  as  a  trooper 
for  Charles  L — used  to  term  him  the  "  Delicise  occidentis, 
or  Darling  of  the  West."  On  one  occasion  this  Darling 
of  the  West  was  placed  in  a  ludicrous  position  by  the 
alacrity  with  which  he  accepted  an  invitation  from  "  a 
busy  fanatic,"  a  Devonshire  gentleman,  of  good  family, 
and  estate,  named  Duke.  This  "  busy  fanatic "  invited 
the  judges  on  circuit  and  their  officers  to  dine  and  sleep 
at  his  mansion  on  their  way  to  Exeter,  and  subsequently 
scandalized  his  guests — all  of  them  of  course  zealous  de- 
fenders of  the  Established  Church — by  reading  family- 
prayers  before  supper.  "  The  gentleman,"  says  the  his- 
torian, "  had  not  the  mariners  to  engage  the  parish  min- 
ister to  come  and  officiate  with  any  part  of  the  evening 


Mirth.  379 

service  before  supper  :  but  he  himself  got  behind  the  ta- 
ble in  his  hall,  and  read  a  chapter,  and  then  a  long-winded 
prayer,  after  the  Presbyterian  way."  Very  displeased 
were  the  Chief  Justice  and  the  other  Judge  of  Assize  ; 
and  their  dissatisfaction  was  not  diminished  on  the  fol- 
lowing day  when  on  entering  Exeter  a  rumor  met  them, 
that  "the  judges  had  been  at  a  conventicle,  and  the 
grand  jury  intended  to  present  them  and  all  their  retinue 
for  it." 

Not  many  years  elapsed  before  this  Darling  of  the 
West  was  replaced  by  another  Chief  Justice  who  asserted 
the  power  of  constituted  authorities  with  an  energy  that 
roused  more  fear  than  gratitude  in  the  breasts  of  local 
magistrates.  That  grim,  ghastly,  hideous  progress,  which 
Jeffreys  made  in  the  plenitude  of  civil  and  military  power 
through  the  Western  Counties,  was  not  without  its  comic 
interludes ;  and  of  its  less  repulsive  scenes  none  was 
more  laughable  than  that  which  occurred  in  Bristol 
Court-house  when  the  terrible  Chief  Justice  upbraided 
the  Bristol  magistrates  for  taking  part  in  a  slave-trade 
of  the  most  odious  sort.  The  mode  in  which  the  author- 
ities of  the  western  port  carried  on  their  iniquitous  traffic 
deserves  commemoration,  for  no  student  can  understand 
the  history  of  any  period  until  he  has  acquainted  himself 
with  its  prevailing  morality.  At  a  time  when  by  the 
wealth  of  her  merchants  and  the  political  influence  of  her 
inhabitants  Bristol  was  the  second  city  of  England,  her 
mayor  and  aldermen  used  daily  to  sit  in  judgment  on 
young  men  and  growing  boys,  who  were  brought  before 
them  and  charged  with  trivial  offences.  Some  of  the 
prisoners  had  actually  broken  the  law :  but  in  a  large 
proportion  of  the  cases  the  accusations  were  totally  fic- 
titious^— the  arrests  having  been  made  in  accordance  with 
the  directions  of  the  magistrates,  on  charges  which  the 
magistrates  themselves  knew  to  be  utterly  without  foun- 


380  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

dation.  Every  morning  the  Bristol  tolsey  or  court-house 
saw  a  crowd  of  those  wretched  captives — clerks  out  of 
employment,  unruly  apprentices,  street  boys'  without  pa- 
rents, and  occasionally  children  of  honest  birth,  ay,  of 
patrician  lineage,  whose  prompt  removal  from  their  na- 
tive land  was  desired  by  brutal  fathers  or  vindictive  guar- 
dians ;  and  every  morning  a  mockery  of  judicial  investi- 
gation was  perpetrated  in  the  name  of  justice.  Standing 
in  a  crowd  the  prisoners  were  informed  of  the  offences 
charged  against  them  ;  huddled  together  in  the  dock,  like 
cattle  in  a  pen,,  they  caught  stray  sentences  from  the  lips 
of  the  perjured  rascals  who  had  seized  them  in  the  pub- 
lic ways  ;  and  whilst  they  thus  in  a  frenzy  of  surprise 
and  fear  listened  to  the  statements  of  counsel  for  the 
prosecution,  and  to  the  fabrications  of  lying  witnesses, 
agents  of  the  court  whispered  to  them  that  if  they  wished 
to  save  their  lives  they  must  instantly  confess  their  guilt, 
and  implore  the  justices  to  transport  them  to  the  planta- 
tions. Ignorant,  alarmed,  and  powerless,  the  miserable 
victims  invariably  acted  on  this  perfidious  counsel ;  and 
forthwith  the  magistrates  ordered  their  shipment  to  the 
"West  Indies,  where  they  were  sold  as  slaves — the  money 
paid  for  them  by  "West  India  planters  in  due  course  find- 
ing its  way  into  the  pockets  of  the  Bristol  justices.  It  is 
asserted  that  the  wealthier  aldermen,  through  caution,  or 
those  fe  »v  grains  of  conscience  which  are  often  found  in 
the  breasts  of  consummate  rogues,  forbore  to  share  in  the 
gains  of  this  abominable  traffic  ;  but  it  cannot  be  gain- 
said that  the  least  guilty  magistrates  winked  at  the  atro- 
cious conduct  of  their  brother-justices. 

Vowing  vengeance  on  the  Bristol  kidnappers  Jeffreys 
entered  their  court-house,  and  opened  proceedings  by 
crying  aloud  that "  he  had  brought  a  broom  to  sweep  them 
with."  The  Mayor  of  Bristol  was  in  those  days  no  com- 
mon mayor  ;  in  Assize  Commissions  his  name  was  placed 


Mirth  381 

before  the  names  of  Judges  of  Assize  ;  and  even  beyond 
the  limits  of  his  jurisdiction  he  was  a  man  of  mark  and 
influence.  Great  therefore  was  this  dignitary's  astonish- 
ment when  Jeffreys  ordered  him — clothed  as  he  was  in 
official  scarlet  and  furs — to  stand  in  the  dock.  For  a  few 
seconds  the  local  potentate  demurred  ;  but  when  the  Chief 
Justice  poured  upon  him  a  cataract  of  blasphemy,  and 
vowed  to  hang  him  instantly  over  the  entrance  to  the  tol- 
sey  unless  he  complied  immediately,  the  humiliated  chief 
magistrate  of  the  ancient  borough  took  his  place  at  the 
felon's  bar,  and  received  such  a  rating  as  no  thief,  mur- 
derer or  rebel  had  ever  heard  from  George  Jeffrey's  abu- 
sive mouth.  Unfortunately  the  affair  ended  with  the 
storm.  Until  the  arrival  of  William  of  Orange  the  guilty 
magistrates  were  kept  in  fear  of  criminal  prosecution  ; 
but  the  matter  was  hushed  up  and  covered  with  amnesty 
by  the  new  government,  so  that  "  the  fright  only,  which 
was  no  small  one,  was  all  the  punishment  which  these 
judicial  kidnappers  underwent  ;  and  the  gains,"  says 
Roger  North,  "acquired  by  so  wicked  a  trade,  rested 
peacefully  in  their  pockets."  It  should  be  remembered 
that  the  kidnapping  justices  whom  the  odious  Jeffreys  so 
indignantly  denounced  were  tolerated  and  courted  by 
their  respectable  and  prosperous  neighbors  ;  and  some  of 
the  worst  charges,  by  which  the  judge's  fame  has  been 
rendered  odious  to  posterity,  depend  upon  the  evidence 
of  men  who,  if  they  were  not  kidnappers  themselves,  saw 
nothing  peculiarly  atrocious  in  the  conduct  of  magistrates 
who  systematically  sold  their  fellow-countrymen  into  a 
most  barbarous  slavery. 

Amongst  old  circuit  stories  of  questionable  truthfulness 
there  is  a  singular  anecdote  recorded  by  the  biographers 
of  Chief  Justice  Hale,  who,  whilst  riding  the  "Western 
Circuit,  tried  a  half-starved  lad  on  a  charge  of  burglary. 
The  prisoner  had  been  shipwrecked  upon  the  Cornish 


382  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

coast,  and  on  his  way  through  an  inhospitable  district 
had  endured  the  pangs  of  extreme  hunger.  In  his  dis- 
tress, the  famished  wanderer  broke  the  window  of  a  bak- 
er's shop  and  stole  a  loaf  of  bread  Under  the  circumstan. 
ces,  Hale  directed  the  jury  to  acquit  the  prisoner:  but,  less 
merciful  than  the  judge,  the  gentlemen  of  the  box  re- 
turned a  verdict  of  '  Guilty' — a  verdict  which  the  Chief 
Justice  stoutly  refused  to  act  upon.  After  much  resist- 
ance, the  jurymen  were  starved  into  submission;  and  the 
youth  was  set  at  liberty.  Several  years  elapsed  ;  and 
Chief  Justice  Hale  was  riding  the  Northern  Circuit,  when 
he  was  received  with  such  costly  and  excessive  pomp  by 
the  sheriff  of  a  northern  county,  that  he  expostulated 
with  his  entertainer  on  the  lavish  profuseness  of  his  con- 
duct. "  My  lord,"  answered  the  sheriff,  with  emotion, 
"  don't  blame  me  for  showing  my  gratitude  to  the  judge 
who  saved  my  life  when  I  was  an  outcast.  Had  it  not 
been  for  you,  I  should  have  been  hanged  in  Cornwall  for 
stealing  a  loaf,  instead  of  living  to  be  the  richest  land- 
owner of  my  native  county." 

A  sketch  of  circuit-life  in  the  middle  of  the  last 
century  may  be  found  in  •  A  Northern  Circuit,  Described 
in  a  Letter  to  a  Friend:  a  Poetical  Essay.  By  a  Gentle- 
man of  the  Middle  Temple.  1751.' — a  piece  of  doggrel 
that  will  meet  with  greater  mercy  from  the  antiquary 
than  the  poetical  critic. 

In  seeking  to  avoid  the  customary  exactions  of  their 
office,  the  sheriffs  of  the  present  generation  were  only  fol- 
lowing in  the  steps  of  sheriffs  who,  more  than  a  century 
past,  exerted  themselves  to  reduce  the  expenses  of  shriev- 
alties, and  whose  economical  reforms  were  defended  by 
reference  to  the  conduct  of  sheriffs  under  the  last  of  the 
Tudors. — In  the  days  of  Elizabeth,  the  sheriffs  demanded 
and  obtained  relief  from  an  obligation  to  supply  judges 
on  circuit  with  food  and  lodging  ;  under  Victoria  they 


Mirth.  383 

have  recently  exclaimed  against  the  custom  which  re- 
quired them  to  furnish  guards  of  javelin-bearers  for  the 
protection  of  Her  Majesty's  representatives;  when  George 
H.  was  king,  they  grumbled  against  lighter  burdens — for 
instance,  the  cost  of  white  kid-gloves  and  payments  to 
bell-ringers.  The  sheriff  is  still  required  by  custom  to 
present  the  judges  with  white  gloves  whenever  an  assize 
has  been  held  without  a  single  capital  conviction;  but  in 
past  times,  on  every  maiden  assize,  he  was  expected  to 
give  gloves  not  only  to  the  judges,  but  to  the  entire  body 
of  circuiteers — barristers  as  well  as   officers   of  court.* 


*  With  regard  to  the  customary  gifts  of  white  gloves  Mr.  Foss  says  : — "  Gloves 
were  presented  to  the  judges  on  some  occasions  :  viz.,  when  a  man,  convicted  for 
murder,  or  manslaughter,  came  and  pleaded  the  king's  pardon ;  and,  till  the  Act  of 
4  <fe  5  William  and  Mary  c.  18,  which  rendered  personal  appearance  unnecessary, 
an  outlawry  could  not  be  reversed,  unless  the  defendant  came  into  court,  and  with 
a  present  of  gloves  to  the  judges  implored  their  favor  to  reverse  it.  The  custom  of 
giving  the  judge  a  pair  of  white  gloves  upon  a  maiden  assize  has  continued  till  the 
present  time."  An  interesting  chapter  might  be  written  on  the  ancient  ceremonies 
and  usages  obsolete  and  extant,  of  our  courts  of  law.  Here  are  a  few  of  the  practices 
which  such  a  chapter  would  properly  notice  : — The  custom,  still  maintained, 
which  forbids  the  Lord  Chancellor  to  utter  any  word  or  make  any  sign,  when  on 
Lord  Mayor's  Day  the  Lord  Mayor  of  London  enters  the  Court  of  Chancery,  and  by 
the  mouth  of  the  Recorder  prays  his  lordship  to  honor  the  Guildhall  banquet  with 
his  presence;  the  custom — extant  so  late  as  Lord  Brougham's  Chancellorship — 
which  required  the  Holder  of  the  Seals,  at  the  installation  of  a  new  Master  of  Chan- 
cery, to  install  the  new  master  by  placing  a  cap  or  hat  on  his  head;  the  custom 
which  in  Charles  U.'s  time,  on  motion  days  at  the  Chancellor's,  compelled  all  bar- 
risters making  motions  to  contribute  to  his  lordship's  '  Poor's  Box ' — barristers 
within  the  bar  paying  two  shillings,  and  outer  barristers  one  shilling — the  contents 
of  which  box  were  periodically  given  t<>  magistrates,  for  distribution  amongst  the 
deserving  poor  of  London;  the  custom  which  required  a  newly-created  judge  to 
present  his  colleagues  with  biscuits  and  wine;  the  barbarous  custom  which  com- 
pelled prisoners  to  plead  their  defence,  standing  in  fetters,  a  custom  enforced  by 
Chief  Justice  Pratt  at  the  trial  of  the  Jacobite  against  Christopher  Layer,  although 
at  the  trial  of  Cranburne  for  complicity  in  the  '  Assassination  Plot,'  Holt  had  enun- 
ciated the  merciful  maxim,  "  When  the'  prisoners  are  tried  they  should  stand  at 
ease;"  the  custom  which — in  days  when  forty  persons  died  of  gaol  fever  caught  at 
the  memorable  Black  Sessions  (May,  1750)  at  the  Old  Bailey,  when  Captain  Clark  was 
tried  for  killing  Captain  Innes  in  a  duel — strewed  rue,  fennel,  and  other  herbs 
on  the  ledge  of  the  dock,  in  the  faith  that  the  odor  of  the  herbage  would  act  as  a 
barrier  to  the  poisonous  exhalations  from  prisoners  sick  of  gaol  distemper,  and 
would  protect  the  assembly  in  the  body  of  the  court  from  the  contagion  of  the  disease. 


384  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

Wishing  to  keep  his  official  expenditure  down  to  the  low- 
est possible  sum,  a  certain  sheriff  for  Cumberland — called 
in  '  A  Northern  Circuit,'  Sir  Frigid  Gripus  Knapper— di- 
rected his  under-sheriff  not  to  give  white  gloves  on  the  oc- 
casion of  a  maiden  assize  at  Carlisle,  and  also   through 
the  mouth  of  his  subordinate,  declined  to  pay  the  officers 
of  the  circuit  certain  customary  fees.     To  put    the  inno-^ 
vator  to  shame,  Sir  William  Gascoigne,  the  judge  before 
whom  the  case  was  laid,  observed  in  open  court,  "  Though 
I  can  ompel  an  immediate  payment,  it  being  a  demand  of 
right,  and  not  a  mere  gift,  yet  I  will  set  him  an  example 
by  giffs  which  I  might  refuse,  but  will  not,  because  they 
are  customary,"  and  forthwith  addressing  the  steward, 
added — "  Call  the  sheriff's  coachman,  his  pages,  and  mu- 
sicians, singing-boys,  and  vergers,  and  give  them  the  ac- 
customed gifts  as  soon  as  the  sheriff  comes."    From  this 
direction,  readers  may  see  that  under  the  old  system  of 
presents  a  judge  was  compelled  to  give  away  with  his 
left  hand  much  of  that  which  he  accepted  with  his  right. 
It  appears  that  Sir  Wjlliam  Gascoigne's  conduct  had  the 
desired  effect ;  for  as  soon  as  the  sheriff  made  his  appear- 
ance, he   repudiated  the  parsimonious  conduct   of  the 
under-sheriff —  though  it  is  not  credible  that  the  subordi- 
nate acted  without  the  direction  or  concurrence  of  his  su- 
perior.    "I  think  it, "-observed  the  sheriff,  in  reference 
to  the  sum  of  the  customary  payments,  "  as  much  for  the 
honor  of  my  office,  and  the  country  in  general,  as  it  is 
justice    to    those  to   whom  it  is  payable  ;  and  if   any 
sheriff  has  been  of  a  different  opinion  it  shall  never  bias 
me. 

From  the  days  when  Alexander  Wedderburn,  in  his 
new  silk  gown,  to  the  scandal  of  all  sticklers  for  profes- 
sional etiquette,  made  a  daring  but  futile  attempt  to  seize 
the  lead  of  the  circuit  which  seventeen  years  later  he  rode 
as  judge,  '  The  Northern  '  has  maintained  the  prestige  of 


Mirth.  385 

being  the  most  important  of  the  English  circuits.  Its 
palmiest  and  most  famous  days  belong  to  the  times  of 
Norton  and  Wallace,  Jack  Lee  and  John  Scott,  Edward 
Law  and  Robert  Graham;  but  still  amongst  the  wise 
white  heads  of  the  upper  house  may  be  seen  at  times  the 
mobile  features  of  an  aged  peer  who,  as  Mr.  Henry 
Brougham,  surpassed  in  eloquence  and  intellectual  bril- 
liance the  brightest  and  most  celebrated  of  his  precur- 
sors on  the  great  northern  round.  But  of  all  the  great  men 
whose  names  illustrate  the  annals  of  the  circuit,  Lord 
Eldon  is  the  person  most  frequently  remembered  in  con- 
nexion with  the  jovial  ways  of  circuiteers  in  the  old  time. 
In  his  later  years  the  port-loving  earl  delighted  to  recall 
the  times  when  as  Attorney  General  of  the  Circuit  Grand 
Court  he  used  to  prosecute  offenders  '  against  the  peace 
of  our  Lord  the  Junior,'  devise .  practical  jokes  for  the 
diversion  of  the  bar,  and  over  bowls  of  punch  at  York, 
Lancaster,  or  Kirkby  Lonsdale,  argue  perplexing  ques- 
tions about  the  morals  of  advocacy.  Just  as  John  Camp- 
bell, thirty  years  later,  used  to  recount  with  glee  how  in 
the  mock  courts  of  the  Oxford  Circuit  he  used  to  officiate 
as  crier,  "  holding  a  fire-shovel  in  his  hand  as  the  emblem  of 
his  office;"  so  did  old  Lord  Eldon  warm  with  mirth  over 
recollections  of  his  circuit  revelries  and  escapades.  Many 
of  his  stories  were  apocryphal,  some  of  them  unquestion- 
ably spurious;  but  the  least  truthful  of  them  contained 
an  element  of  pleasant  reality.  Of  course  Jemmy  Bos- 
well,  a  decent  lawyer,  though  better  biographer,  was 
neither  duped  by  the  sham  brief,  nor  induced  to  apply  in 
court  for  the  writ  of  'quare  adhsesit  pavimento;'  but  it 
is  quite  credible  that  on  the  morning  after  his  removal  in 
a  condition  of  vinous  prostration  from  the  Lancaster  flag- 
stones, his  jocose  friends  concocted  the  brief,  sent  it  to 
him  with  a  bad  guinea,  and  proclaimed  the  success  of 
their  device.  When  the  chimney-sweeper's  boy  met  his 
17 


386  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

death  by  falling  from  a  high  gallery  to  the  floor  of  the 
court-house  at  the  York  Assizes,  whilst  Sir  Thomas 
Davenport  was  speaking,  it  was  John  Scott  who — 
arguing  that  the  orator's  dullness  had  sent  the  boy  to 
sleep,  and  so  caused  his  fatal  fall — prosecuted  Sir  Thomas 
for  murder  in  the  High  Court,  alleging  in  the  indictment 
that  the  death  was  produced  by  a  "  certain  blunt  instru- 
ment of  no  value,  called  a  long  speech."  The  records  of 
the  Northern  Circuit  abound  with  testimony  to  the 
hearty  zeal  with  which  the  future  Chancellor  took  part  in 
the  proceedings  of  the  Grand  Court — paying  fines  and 
imposing  them  with  equal  readiness,  now  upholding  with 
mock  gravity  the  high  and  majestic  character  of  the  pre- 
siding judge,  and  at  another  time  inveighing  against  the 
levity  and  indecorum  of  a  learned  brother  who  had  main- 
tained in  conversation  that  "no   man  would  be  such  a 

fool  as  to  go  to  a  lawyer  for  advice  who  knew  how 

to  get  on  without  it."  The  monstrous  offender  against 
religion  and  propriety  who  gave  utterance  to  this  execra- 
ble sentiment  was  Pepper  Arden  (subsequently  Master  of 
the  Rolls  and  Lord  Alvanley),  and  his  punishment  is  thus 
recorded  in  the  archives  of  the  circuit: — "In  this  he  was 
considered  as  doubly  culpable,  in  the  first  place  as  having 
offended  against  the  laws  of  Almighty  God  by  his  profane 
cursing;  for  which,  however,  he  made  a  very  sufficient 
atonement  by  paying  a  bottle  of  claret;  and  secondly,  as 
having  made  use  of  an  expression  which,  if  it  should  be- 
come a  prevailing  opinion,  might  have  the  most  alarming 
consequences  to  the  profession,  and  was  therefore  deser- 
vedly considered  in  a  far  more  hideous  light.  For  the 
last  offence  he  was  fin'd  3  bottles.     Pd." 

One  of  the  most  ridiculous  circumstances  over  which 
the  Northern  Circuit  men  of  the  last  generation  delighted 
to  laugh  occurred  at  Newcastle,  when  Baron  Graham — 
the  poor  lawyer,  but  a  singularly  amiable  and  placid  man, 


Mirth.  887 

of  whom  Jeckyll  observed,  "  no  one  but  his  sempstress 
could  ruffle  him  " — rode  the  circuit,  and  was  immortalized 
as  '  My  Lord  'Size,'  in  Mr.  John  Shield's  capital  song — 

"  The  jailor,  for  trial  had  brought  up  a  thief, 

Whose  looks  seemed  a  passport  for  Botany  Bay; 
The  lawyers,  some  with  and  some  wanting  a  brief, 

Around  the  green  table  were  seated  so  gay; 
Grave  jurors  and  witnesses  waiting  a  call; 

Attorneys  and  clients,  more  angry  than  wise; 
With  strangers  and  town-people,  throng'd  the  Guildhall, 

All  watching  and  gaping  to  see  my  Lord  'Size. 

"  Oft  stretch'd  were  their  necks,  oft  erected  their  ears, 

Still  fancying  they  heard  of  the  trumpets  the  sound, 
When  tidings  arriv'd,  which  dissolv'd  them  in  tears, 

That  my  lord  at  the  dead-house  was  then  lying  drown'd. 
Straight  left  tete-a-tete  were  the  jailor  and  thief; 

The  horror-struck  crowd  to  the  dead-house  quick  hies; 
Ev'n  the  lawyers,  forgetful  of  fee  and  of  brief, 

Set  off  helter-skelter  to  view  my  Lord  'Size. 

"  And  now  the  Sandhill  with  the  sad  tidings  rings, 
And  the  tubs  of  the  taties  are  left  to  take  care; 
'  Fishwomen  desert  their  crabs,  lobsters,  and  lings, 

And  each  to  the  dead-house  now  runs  like  a  hare; 
The  glassmen,  some  naked,  some  clad,  heard  the  news, 

And  off  they  ran,  smoking  like  hot  mutton  pies; 
Whilst  Castle  Garth  tailors,  like  wild  kangaroos, 
Came  tail-on-end  jumping  to  see  my  Lord  'Size. 

**  The  dead-house  they  reach'd,  where  his  lordship  they  found, 

Pale,  stretch'd  on  a  plank,  like  themselves  out  of  breath, 
The  coroner  and  jury  were  seated  around, 

Most  gravely  enquiring  the  cause  of  his  death. 
No  haste  did  they  seem  in,  their  task  to  complete, 

Aware  that  from  hurry  mistakes  often  rise; 
Or  wishful,  perhaps,  of  prolonging  the  treat 

Of  thus  sitting  in  judgment  upon  my  Lord  'Size. 

"  Now  the  Mansion  House  butler,  thus  gravely  deposed: — 
'  My  lord  on  the  terrace  seem'd  studying  his  charge 


388  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

And  when  (as  I  thought)  he  had  got  it  compos'd, 
He  went  down  the  stairs  and  examined  the  barge; 

First  the  stem  he  survey'd,  then  inspected  the  stern, 
Then  handled  the  tiller,  and  looked  mighty  wise; 

But  he  made  a  false  step  when  about  to  return, 

And  souse  in  the  river  straight  tumbled  Lord  'Size.' 

'  Now  his  narrative  ended,  the  butler  retir'd, 

Whilst  Betty  Watt,  muttering  half  drunk  through  her  teeth, 
Declar'd  '  in  her  breast  great  consarn  it  inspir'd, 

That  my  lord  should  sae  cullishly  come  by  his  death;' 
Next  a  keelman  was  called  on,  Bold  Airchy  by  name, 

Who  the  book  as  he  kissed  showed  the  whites  of  his  eyes, 
Then  he  cut  an  odd  caper  attention  to  claim, 

And  this  evidence  gave  them  respecting  Lord  'Size; — 

"  Aw  was  settin'  the  keel,  wi'  Dick  Slavers  an'  Matt, 

An'  the  Mansion  House  stairs  we  were  just  alongside, 
When  we  a'  three  see'd  somethin',  but  didn't  kenwhat, 

That  was  splashin'  and  labberin',  aboot  i'  the  tide. 
'It's  a  fluiker,'  ki  Dick;  'No,'  ki  Matt,   '  its  owre  big, 

It  luik'd  mair  like  a  skyet  when  aw  furst  seed  it  rise;' 
Kiv  aw — for  aw*d  getten  a  gliff  o'  the  wig — 

'Ods  marcy !  wey,  marrows,  becrike,  it's  Lord  'Size 

"  '  Sae  aw  huik'd  him,  an'  haul'd  him  suin  into  the  keel, 

An'  o'  top  o'  the  huddock  aw  rowl'd  him  aboot; 
4n'  his  belly  aw  rubb'd,  an'  aw  skelp'd  his  back  weel, 

But  the  water  he'd  druck'n  it  wadn't  run  oot; 
So  aw  brought  him  ashore  here,  an'  doctor's,  in  vain, 

Furst  this  way,  then  that,  to  recover  him  tries; 
For  ye  see  there  he's  lyin'  as  deed  as  a  stane, 

An'  that's  a'  aw  can  tell  ye  aboot  my  Lord  'Size.' 

"  Now  the  jury  for  close  consultation  retir'd: 

Some  'Death  Accidental1  were  willing  to  find; 
'God's  Visitation '  most  eager  requir'd; 

And  some  were  for  '  Fell  in  the  River '  inclin'd; 
But  ere  on  their  verdict  they  all  were  agreed, 

My  Lord  gave  a  groan,  and  wide  opened  his  eyes; 
Then  the  coach  and  the  trumpeters  came  with  great  speed, 

And  back  to  the  Mansion  House  carried  Lord  'Size." 


Mirth.  389 

Amongst  memorable  Northern  Circuit  worthies  was 
George  Wood,  the  celebrated  Special  Pleader,  in  whose 
chambers  Law,  Erskine,  Abbott  and  a  mob  of  eminent  law- 
yers acquired  a  knowledge  of  their  profession.  It  is  on 
record  that  whilst  he  and  Mr.  Holroyde  were  posting  the 
Northern  round,  they  were  accosted  on  a  lonely  heath 
by  a  well-mounted  horseman,  who  reining  in  his  steed 
asked  the  barrister  "  What  o'clock  it  was  ?"  Favorably 
impressed  by  the  stranger's  appearance  and  tone  of  voice, 
Wood  pulled  out  his  valuable  gold  repeater,  when  the 
highwayman  presenting  a  pistol,  and  putting  it  on  the 
cock,  said  coolly,  "As  you  have  a  watch,  be  kind  enough 
to  give  it  me,  so  that  I  may  not  have  occasion  to  trouble 
you  again  about  the  time."  To  demur  was  impossible; 
the  lawyer,  therefore,  who  had  met  his  disaster  by  going 
to  the  country,  meekly  submitted  to  circumstances  and 
surrendered  the  watch.  For  the  loss  of  an  excellent  gold 
repeater  he  cared  little,  but  he  winced  under  the  banter 
of  his  professional  brethren,  who  long  after  the  occurrence 
used  to  smile  with  malicious  significance  as  they  accosted 
him  with— "What's  the  time,  Wood?" 

Another  of  the  memorable  Northern  circuiteers  was 
John  Hullock,  who,  like  George  Wood,  became  a  baron 
of  the  Exchequer,  and  of  whom  the  following  story  is 
told  on  good  authority.  In  an  important  cause  tried 
upon  the  Northern  Circuit,  he  was  instructed  by  the 
attorney  who  retained  him  as  leader  on  one  side  not  to 
produce  a  certain  deed  unless  circumstances  made  him 
think  that  without  its  production  his  client  would  lose 
the  suit.  On  perusing  the  deed  entrusted  to  him  with 
this  remarkable  injunction,  Hullock  saw  that  it  established 
his  client's  case,  and  wishing  to  dispatch  the  business 
with  all  possible  promptitude,  he  produced  the  parchment 
before  its  exhibition  was  demanded  by  necessity.  Exam- 
ination instantly  detected  the  spurious  character  of  the 


390  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

deed,  which  had  been  fabricated  by  the  attorney.  Of 
course  the  presiding  judge  (Sir  John  Bayley)  ordered  the 
deed  to  be  impounded;  but  before  the  order  was  carried 
out,  Mr.  Hullock  obtained  permission  to  inspect  it  again. 
Restored  to  his  hands,  the  deed  was  forthwith  replaced  in 
his  bag.  "  You  mu3t  surrender  that  deed  instantly,"  ex- 
claimed the  judge,  seeing  Hullock's  intention  to  keep  it.  • 
"  My  lord,"  returned  the  barrister,  warmly,  "  no  power 
on  earth  shall  induce  me  to  surrender  it.  I  have  in- 
cautiously put  the  life  of  a  fellow-creature  in  peril;  and 
though  I  acted  to  the  best  of  my  discretion,  I  should  never 
be  happy  again  were  a  fatal  result  to  ensue."  At  a  loss 
to  decide  on  the  proper  course  of  action,  Mr.  Justice  Bay- 
ley  retired  from  court  to  consult  with  his  learned  brother. 
On  his  lordship's  reappearance  in  court,  Mr.  Hullock — 
who  had  also  left  the  court  for  a  brief  period — told  him 
that  during  his  absence  the  forged  deed  had  been  de- 
stroyed. The  attorney  escaped;  the  barrister  became  a 
judge. 


CHAPTER  XLT7. 

LAWYERS   AND    SAINTS. 


NOTWITHSTANDING  the  close  connexion  which  in 
old  times  existed  between  the  Church  and  the 
Law,  popular  sentiment  holds  to  the  opinion  that  the 
ways  of  lawyers  are  far  removed  from  the  ways  of  holi- 
ness, and  that  the  difficulties  encountered  by  wealthy 
travellers  on  the  road  to  heaven  are  far  greater  with  rich 
lawyers  than  with  any  other  class  of  rich  men.  An  old 
proverb  teaches  that  wearers  of  the  long  robe  never  reach 
paradise  per  saltum,  but  'by  slow  degrees;'  and  an  irrev- 
erent ballad  supports  the  vulgar  belief  that  the   only 


Mirth.  391 

attorney  to  be  found  on  the  celestial  rolls  gained  admit- 
tance to  the  blissful  abode  more  by  artifice  than  desert. 
The  ribald  broadside  runs  in  the  following  style: — 

"  Professions  will  abuse  each  other; 
The  priests  won't  call  the  lawyer  brother; 
While  Salkeld  still  beknaves  the  parson, 
And  says  he  cants  to  keep  the  farce  on. 
Yet  will  I  readily  suppose 
They  are  not  truly  bitter  foes, 
But  only  have  their  pleasant  jokes, 
And  banter,  just  like  other  folks. 
And  thus,  for  so  they  quiz  the  law, 
Once  on  a  time  th'  Attorney  Flaw, 
A  man  to  tell  you,  as  the  fact  is, 
Of  vast  chicane,  of  course  of  practice; 
(But  what  profession  can  we  trace 
Where  none  will  not  the  corps  disgrace? 
Seduced,  perhaps,  by  roguish  client, 
Who  tempt  him  to  become  more  pliant), 
A  notice  had  to  quit  the  world, 
And  from  his  desk  at  once  was  hurled. 
Observe,  I  pray,  the  plain  narration: 
'Twas  in  a  hot  and  long  vacation, 
When  time  he  had  but  no  assistance. 
Tho'  great  from  courts  of  law  the  distance, 
•*      To  reach  the  court  of  truth  and  justice 
(Where  I  confess  my  only  trust  is) ; 
Though  here  below  the  special  pleader 
Shows  talents  worthy  of  a  leader, 
Yet  his  own  fame  he  must  support, 
Be  sometimes  \ritty  with  the  court 
Or  word  the  passion  of  a  jury 
By  tender  strains,  or  full  of  fury; 
Misleads  them  all,  tho'  twelve  apostles, 
While  with  the  new  law  the  judge  he  jostles, 
And  makes  them  all  give  up  their  powers 
To  speeches  of  at  least  three  hours — 
But  we  have  left  our  little  man, 
And  wandered  from  our  purpos'd  plan: 
'Tis  said  (without  ill-natured  leaven) 
"U  ever  lawyers  get  to  heaven, 


392  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

It  surely  is  by  slow  degrees  " 

(Perhaps  'tis  slow  they  take  their  fees). 

The  case,  then,  now  I  fairly  state: 

Flaw  reached  at  last  to  heaven's  high  gate; 

Quite  short  he  rapped,  none  did  it  neater; 

The  gate  was  opened  by  St.  Peter, 

Who  looked  astonished  when  he  saw, 

All  black,  the  little  man  of  law; 

But  charity  was  Peter's  guide. 

For  having  once  himself  denied 

His  master,  he  would  not  o'erpass 

The  penitent  of  any  class; 

Yet  never  having  heard  there  entered 

A  lawyer,  nay,  nor  ever  ventured 

Within  the  realms  of  peace  and  love, 

He  told  him  mildly  to  remove, 

And  would  have  closed  the  gate  of  day, 

Had  not  old  Flaw,  in  suppliant  way, 

Demurring  to  so  hard  a  fate, 

Begg'd  but  a  look,  tho'  through  the  gate. 

St.  Peter,  rather  off  his  guard, 

Unwilling  to  be  thought  too  hard, 

Opens  the  gate  to  let  him  peep  in. 

What  did  the  lawyer?    Did  he  creep  in? 

Or  dash  at  once  to  take  possession  ? 

Oh  no,  he  knew  his  own  profession: 

He  took  his  hat  off  with  respect,  m 

And  would  no  gentle  means  neglect; 

But  finding  it  was  all  in  vain 

For  him  admittance  to  obtain, 

Thought  it  were  best,  let  come  what  will, 

To  gain  an  entry  by  his  skill. 

So  while  St.  Peter  stood  aside, 

To  let  the  door  be  opened  wide, 

He  skimmed  his  hat  with  all  his  strength 

Within  the  gate  to  no  small  length. 

St.  Peter  stared;  the  lawyer  asked  him 

"  Only  to  fetch  his  hat,"  and  passed  him; 

But  when  he  reached  the  jack  he'd  thrown, 

Oh,  then  was  all  the  lawyer  shown; 

He  clapt  it  on,  and  arms  akembo 

(As  if  he  had  been  the  gallant  Bembo), 


Mirth.  393 

Cry'd  out — 'What  think  you  of  my  plan? 
Eject  me,  Peter,  if  you  can.'" 

The  celestial  courts  having  devised  no  process  of  eject- 
ment that  could  be  employed  in  this  unlooked-for  emer- 
gency, St.  Peter  hastily  withdrew  to  take  counsel's  opin- 
ion; and  during  his  absence  Mr.  Flaw  firmly  established 
himself  in  the  realms  of  bliss,  where  he  remains  to  this 
day  the  black  sheep  of  the  saintly  family. 

But  though  a  flippant  humorist  in  these  later  times 
could  deride  the  lawyer  as  a  character  who  had  better  not 
force  his  way  into  heaven,  since  he  would  not  find  a 
single  personal  acquaintance  amongst  its  inhabitants,  in 
more  remote  dajs  lawyers  achieved  the  honors  of  can- 
onization, and  our  forefathers  sought  their  saintly  inter- 
cession with  devout  fervor.  Our  calendars  still  regard 
the  15th  of  July  as  a  sacred  day,  in  memory  of  the  holy 
Swithin,  who  was  tutor  to  King  Ethel wulf  and  King  Al- 
fred, and  Chancellor  of  England,  and  who  certainly 
deserved  his  elevation  to  the  fellowship  of  saints,  even 
had  his  title  to  the  honor  rested  solely  on  a  remarkable 
act  which  he  performed  in  the  exercise  of  his  judicial 
functions.  A  familiar  set  of  nursery  rhymes  sets  forth 
the  utter  inability  of  all  the  King's  horses  and  men  to 
re-form  the  shattered  Humpty-Dumpty,  when  his  rotund 
highness  had  fallen  from  a  wall;  but  when  a  wretched 
market-woman,  whose  entire  basketful  of  new-laid  eggs 
had  been  wilfully  smashed  by  an  enemy,  sought  in  her 
trouble  the  aid  of  Chancery,  the  holy  Chancellor  Swithin 
miraculously  restored  each  broken  shell  to  perfect  shape, 
"  each  yolk  to  soundness.  Saith  William  of  Malmesbury, 
recounting  this  marvellous  achievement — "statimque 
porrecto  crucis  signo,  fracturam  omnium  ovorum  consoli- 
dat." 

Like  Chancellor  Swithin  before  him,  and  like  Chancel- 
lor Wolsey  in  a  later  time,  Chancellor  Becket  was  a  royal 
17* 


394  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

tutor;*  and  like  Swithin,  who  still  remains  the  pluvious 
saint  of  humid  England,  and  unlike  "Wolsey,  who  just 
missed  the  glory  of  canonization,  Becket  became  a  widely 
venerated  saint.  But  less  kind  to  St.  Thomas  of  Canter- 
bury than  to  St.  Swithin,  the  Reformation  degraded 
Becket  from  the  saintly  rank  by  the  decision  which  ter- 
minated the  ridiculous  legal  proceedings  instituted  by 
Henry  VUI.  against  the  holy  reputation  of  St.  Thomas. 
After  the  saint's  counsel  had  replied  to  the  Attorney- 
General,  who,  of  course,  conducted  the  cause  for  the 
crown,  the  court  declared  that  "  Thomas,  sometime 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  had  been  guilty  of  contumacy, 
treason  and  rebellion;  that  his  bones  should  be  publicly 
burnt,  to  admonish  the  living  of  their  duty  by  the  pun- 
ishment of  the  dead;  and  that  the  offerings  made  at  his 
shrine  should  be  forfeited  to  the  crown." 

After  the  conclusion  of  the  suit  for  the  saint's  degrada- 
tion— a  suit  which  was  an  extravagant  parody  of  the  pro- 
cess for  establishing  at  Rome  a  holy  man's  title  to  the 
honors  of  canonization — proclamation  was  made  that 
"  forasmuch  as  it  now  clearly  appeared  that  Thomas 
Becket  had  been  killed  in  a  riot  excited  by  his  own  obsti- 
nacy and  intemperate  language,  and  had  been  afterwards 
canonized  by  the  Bishop  of  Rome  as  the  champion  of  his 
usurped  authority,  the  king's  majesty  thought  it  expedi- 
ent to  declare  to  his  loving  subjects  that  he  was  no  saint, 


*  Swithin  was  tutor  to  Ethelwulf  and  Alfred.  Becket  was  tutor  to  Henry  n.'s 
eldest  son.  Wolsey — who  took  delight  in  discharging  scholastic  functions  from 
the  days  when  he  birched  schoolboys  at  Magdalen  College,  Oxford,  till  the  time 
when  in  the  plenitude  of  his  grandeur  he  framed  regulations  for  Dean  Colet's 
school  of  St.  Paul's  and  wrote  an  introduction  to  a  Latin  Grammar  for  the  use  of 
children — acted  as  educational  director  to  tho  Princess  Mary,  and  superintended 
the  studies  of  Henry  VHI.'s  natural  son,  the  Earl  of  Richmond.  Amongst  ppda- 
gogue-chancellors,  by  license  of  fancy,  may  be  included  the  Earl  of  Clarendon, 
whose  enemies  used  to  charge  him  with  'playing  the  schoolmaster  to  his  king,' 
and  in  their  desire  to  bring  him  into  disfavor  at  court  used  to  announce  his  ap- 
proach to  Charles  H.  by  saying,  "  Here  comes  your  schoolmaster." 


Mirth.  395 

but  rather  a  rebel  and  traitor  to  his  prince,  and  therefore 
strictly  charged  and  commanded  that  he  should  not  be 
esteemed  or  called  a  saint;  that  all  images  and  pictures 
of  him  should  be  destroyed,  the  festivals  in  his  honor  be 
abolished,  and  his  name  and  remembrance  be  erased  out 
of  all  books,  under  pain  of  his  majesty's  indignation  and 
imprisonment  at  his  grace's  pleasure." 

But  neither  St.  Swithin  nor  St  Thomas  of  Canterbury, 
lawyers  though  they  were,  deigned  to  take  the  legal  pro- 
fession under  especial  protection,  and  to  mediate  with 
particular  officiousness  between  the  long  robe  and  St. 
Peter.  The  peculiar  saint  of  the  profession  was  St. 
Evona,  concerning  .whom  Carr,  in  his  'Remarks  of  the 
Government  of  the  Severall  Parts  of  Germanie,  Den- 
mark, &c.,'  has  the  following  passage :  "  And  now  because 
I  am  speaking  of  Petty-foggers,  give  me  leave  to  tell  you 
a  story  I  mett  with  when  I  lived  in  Rome.  Goeing  with 
a  Romane  to  see  some  antiquityes,  he  showed  me  a 
chapell  dedicated  to  St.  Evona,  a  lawyer  of  Brittanie, 
who,  he  said,  came  to  Rome  to  entreat  the  Pope  to  give 
the  lawyers  of  Brittanie  a  patron,  to  which  the  Pope  re- 
plied, that  he  knew  of  no  saint  but  what  was  disposed  to 
other  professions.  At  which  Evona  was  very  sad,  and 
earnestly  begd  of  the  Pope  to  think  of  one  for  him.  At 
last  the  Pope  proposed  to  St.  Evona  that  he  should  go 
round  the  church  of  St.  John  de  Latera  blindfold,  and 
after  he  had  said  so  many  Ave  Marias,  that  the  first  saint 
he  laid  hold  of  should  be  his  patron,  which  the  good  old 
lawyer  willingly  undertook,  and  at  the  end  of  his  Ave 
Maryes  he  stopt  at  St.  Michael's  altar,  where  he  layed 
hold  of  the  Divell,  under  St.  Michael's  feet,  and  cry'd  out, 
this  is  our  saint,  let  him  be  our  patron.  So  being  un- 
blindfolded,  and  seeing  what  a  patron  he  had  chosen,  he 
went  to  his  lodgings  so  dejected,  that  a  few  moneths  after 
he  died,  and  coming  to  heaven's  gates  knockt  hard.  Where- 


396  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

upon  St.  Peter  asked  who  it  was  that  knockt  so  bouldly. 
He  replied  that  he  was  St.  Evona  the  advocate.  Away, 
away,  said  St.  Peter,  here  is  but  one  advocate  in  Heaven ; 
here  is  no  room  for  you  lawyers.  O  but,  said  St.  Evona, 
I  am  that  honest  lawyer  who  never  tooke  fees  on  both 
sides,  or  pleaded  in  a  bad  cause,  nor  did  I  ever  set  my 
Naibours  together  by  the  ears,  or  lived  by  the  sins  of  the 
People.  Well,  then,  said  St.  Peter,  come  in.  This  newes 
coming  down  to  Rome,  a  witty  poet  wrote  on  St.  Evona's 
tomb  these  words: — 

•  St.  Evona  un  Briton, 
Advocat  non  Larron. 
Hallelujah.' 

This  story  put  me  in  mind  of  Ben  Jonson  goeing  throw 
a  church  in  Surrey,  seeing  poore  people  weeping  over  a 
grave,  asked  one  of  the  women  why  they  wept.  Oh,  said 
shee,  we  have  lost  our  pretious  lawyer,  Justice  Randall; 
he  kept  us  all  in  peace,  and  always  was  so  good  as  to 
keep  us  from  goeing  to  law;  the  best  man  ever  lived. 
Well,  said  Ben  Jonson,  I  will  send  you  an  epitaph  to  write 
upon  his  tomb,  which  was — 

'  God  works  wonders  now  and  then, 
Here  lies  a  lawyer  an  honest  man. ' 

An  important  vestige  of  the  close  relations  which  for- 
merly existed  between  the  Law  and  the  Church  is  still 
found  in  the  ecclesiastical  patronage  of  the  Lord  Chan- 
cellor; and  many  are  the  good  stories  told  of  interviews 
that  took  place  between  our  more  recent  chancellors  and 
clergymen  suing  for  preferment.  "Who  sent  you,  sir?" 
Thurlow  asked  savagely  of  a  country  curate,  who  had 
boldly  forced  his  way  into  the  Chancellor's  library  in 
Great  Ormond  Street,  in  the  hope  of  winning  the  pre- 
sentation to  a  vacant  living.  "In  whose  name  do  you 
come,  that  you  venture  to  pester  me  about  your  private 


Mirth.  397 

affairs  ?  I  say,  sir — what  great  lords  sent  you  to  bother 
me  in  my  house  ?"  "  My  Lord,"  answered  the  applicant, 
with  a  happy  combination  of  dignity  and  humor,  "  no 
great  man  supports  my  entreaty;  but  I  may  say  with 
honesty,  that  I  come  to  you  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  of 
Hosts."  Pleased  by  the  spirit  and  wit  of  the  reply, 
Thurlow  exclaimed,  "The  Lord  of  Hosts!  the  Lord  of 
Hosts !  you  are  the  first  parson  that  ever  applied  to  me 
in  that  Lord's  name;  and  though  his  title  can't  be  found 

in  the  Peerage,  by you  shall  have  the  living."     On 

another  occasion  the  same  Chancellor  was  less  benign, 
but  not  less  just  to  a  clerical  applicant.  Sustained  by 
Queen  Charlotte's  personal  favor  and  intercession  with 
Thurlow,  the  clergyman  in  question  felt  so  sure  of  ob- 
taining the  valuable  living  which  was  the  object  of  his 
ambition,  that  he  regarded  his  interview  with  the  Chan- 
cellor as  a  purely  formal  affair..  "I  have,  sir,"  observed 
Lord  Thurlow,  "  received  a  letter  from  the  curate  of  the 
parish  to  which  it  is  my  intention  to  prefer  you,  and  on 
inquiry  I  find  him  to  be  a  very  worthy  man.  The  father 
of  a  large  family,  and  a  priest  who  has  labored  zealously 
in  the  parish  for  many  years,  he  has  written  to  me — not 
asking  for  the  living,  but  modestly  entreating  me  to  ask 
the  new  rector  to  retain  him  as  curate.  Now,  sir,  you 
would  oblige  me  by  promising  me  to  employ  the  poor 
man  in^hat  capacity."  "My  lord,"  replied  Queen  Char- 
lotte's pastor,  "  it  would  give  me  great  pleasure  to  oblige 
your  lordship  in  this  matter,  but  unfortunately  I  have 
arranged  to  take  a  personal  friend  for  my  curate."  His 
eyes  flashing  angrily,  Thurlow  answered,  "  Sir,  I  cannot 
force  you  to  take  this  worthy  man  for  your  curate,  but 

I  can  make   him  the    rector;    and    by  he   shall 

have  the  living,  and  be  in  a  position  to  offer  you  the 
curacy." 

Of  Lord  Loughborough  a  reliable  biographer  records 


398  A  Booh  about  Lawyers. 

a  pleasant  and  singular  story.  Having  pronounced  a 
decision  in  the  House  of  Lords,  which  deprived  an  excel- 
lent clergyman  of  a  considerable  estate  and  reduced  him 
to  actual  indigence,  the  Chancellor,  before  quitting  the 
woolsack,  addressed  the  unfortunate  suitor  thus: — "  As  a 
judge  I  have  decided  against  you,  whose  virtues  are  not 
unknown  to  me;  and  in  acknowledgment  of  those  virtues 
I  beg  you  to  accept  from  me  a  presentation  to  a  living 
now  vacant,  and  worth  £600  per  annum." 

Capital  also  are  the  best  of  many  anecdotes  concerning 
Eldon  and  his  ecclesiastical  patronage.  Dating  the  letter 
from  No.  2,  Charlotte  Street,  Pimlico,  the  Chancellor's 
eldest  son  sent  his  father  the  following  anonymous 
epistle :- 

"Hear,  generous  lawyer !  hear  my  prayer, 
Nor  let  my  freedom  make  you  stare, 

In  hailing  you  Jack  Scott ! 
Tho'  now  upon  the  woolsack  placed, 
With  wealth,  with  power,  with  title  graced, 
Once  nearer  was  our  lot. 

"Say  hy  what  name  the  hapless  hard 
May  best  attract  your  kind  regard — 

Plain  Jack  ?— Sir  John?— or  Eldon? 
Give  from  your  ample  store  of  giving, 
A  starving  priest  some  little  living — 

The  world  will  cry  out  'Well  done.' 

"  In  vain,  without  a  patron's  aid, 
I've  prayed  and  preached,  and  preached  and  prayed — 

Applauded  but  ill-fed. 
Such  vain  Sclat  let  others  share; 
Alas,  I  cannot  feed  on  air — 

I  ask  not  praise,  but  bread." 

Satisfactorily  hoaxed  by  the  rhymer,  the  Chancellor  went 
to  Pimlico  in  search  of  the  clerical  poetaster,  and  found 
him  not. 

Prettier  and  less  comic  is  the  story  of  Miss  Bridge's 


Mirth.  399 

morning  call  upon  Lord  Eldon.  The  Chancellor  was 
sitting  in  his  study  over  a  table  of  papers  when  a  young 
and  lovely  girl — slightly  rustic  in  her  attire,  slightly  em- 
barrassed by  the  novelty  of  her  position,  but  thoroughly 
in  command  of  her  wits — entered  the  room,  and  walked 
up  to  the  lawyer's  chair.  "  My  dear,"  said  the  Chancel- 
lor, rising  and  bowing  with  old-world  courtesy,  "  who  are 
you  ?"  "  Lord  Eldon,"  answered  the  blushing  maiden, 
"I  am  Bessie  Bridge  of  Weobly,  the  daughter  of  the 
Vicar  of  Weobly,  and  papa  has  sent  me  to  remind  you  of 
a  promise  which  you  made  him  when  I  was  a  little  baby, 
and  you  were  a  guest  in  his  house  on  the  occasion  of  your 
first  election  as  member  of  Parliament  for  Weobly."  "  A 
promise,  my  dear  young  lady  ?"  interposed  the  Chancellor, 
trying  to  recall  how  he  had  pledged  himself.  "  Yes,  Lord 
Eldon,  a  promise.  You  were  standing  over  my  cradle 
when  papa  said  to  you,  'Mr.  Scott,  promise,  me  that  if 
ever  you  are  Lord  Chancellor,  when  my  little  girl  is  a 
poor  clergyman's  wife,  you  will  give  her  husband  a  living;' 
and  you  answered,  '  Mr.  Bridge,  my  promise  is  not  worth 
half-a-crown,  but  I  give  it  to  you,  wishing  it  were  worth 
more.' "  Enthusiastically  the  Chancellor  exclaimed,  "  You 
are  quite  right.  I  admit  the  obligation.  I  remember  all 
about  it;"  and,  then,  after  a  pause,  archly  surveying  the 
damsel,  whose  graces  were  the  reverse  of  matronly,  he 
added,  "  But  surely  the  time  for  keeping  my  promise  has 
not  yet  arrived  ?  You  cannot  be  any  one's  wife  at  pres- 
ent ?"  For  a  few  seconds  Bessie  hesitated  for  an  answer, 
and  then,  with  a  blush  and  a  ripple  of  silver  laughter 
she  replied,  "  No,  but  I  do  so  wish  to  be  somebody's  wife. 
I  am  engaged  to  a  young  clergyman;  and  there's  a  living 
in  Herefordshire  near  my  old  home  that  has  recently  fal- 
len vacant,  and  if  you'll  give  it  to  Alfred,  why  then,  Lord 
Eldon,  we  shall  marry  before  the  end  of  the  year."  Is 
there   need  to   say  that  the  Chancellor  forthwith  sum- 


400  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

moned  his  Secretary,  that  the  secretary  forthwith  made 
out  the  presentation  to  Bessie's  lover,  and  that  having 
given  the  Chancellor  a  kiss  of  gratitude,  Bessie  made 
good  speed  back  to  Herefordshire,  hugging  the  precious 
document  the  whole  way  home  ? 

A  bad  but  eager  sportsman,  Lord  Eldon  used  to  blaze 
away  at  his  partridges  and  pheasants  with  such  uniform 
want  of  success  that  Lord  Stowell  had  truth  as  well  as 
humor  on  his  side  when  he  observed,  "  My  brother  has 
done  much  execution  this  shooting  season;  with  his  gun 
he  has  killed  a  great  deal  of  time"  Having  ineffectually 
discharged  two  barrels  at  a  covey  of  partridges,  the 
Chancellor  was  slowly  walking  to  the  gate  of  one  of  his 
Encome  turnip-fields  when  a  stranger  of  clerical  garb 
and  aspect  hailed  him  from  a  distance,  asking,  "  Where 
is  Lord  Eldon  ?"  Not  anxious  to  declare  himself  to  the 
witness  of  his  ludicrously  bad  shot,  the  Chancellor  an- 
swered evasively,  and  with  scant  courtesy,  "Not  far  off." 
Displeased  with  the  tone  of  this  curt  reply,  the  clergy- 
man rejoined,  "  I  wish  you'd  use  your  tongue  to  better 
purpose  than  you  do  your  gun,  and  tell  me  civily  where 
I  can  find  the  Chancellor."  "  Well,"  responded  the  sports- 
man, when  he  had  slowly  approached  his  questioner, 
"  here  you  see  the  Chancellor — I  am  Lord  Eldon,"  It  was 
an  untoward  introduction  to  the  Chancellor  for  the  strange 
clergyman  who  had  traveled  from  the  North  of  Lanca- 
shire to  ask  for  the  presentation  to  a  vacant  living.  Partly 
out  of  humorous  compassion  for  the  applicant  who  had 
offered  rudeness,  if  not  insult  to  the  person  whom  he  was 
most  anxious  to  propitiate;  partly  because  on  inquiry  he 
ascertained  the  respect  ability  of  the  applicant;  and 
partly  because  he  wished  to  seal  by  kindness  the  lips  of  a 
man  who  could  report  on  the  authority  of  his  own  eyes 
that  the  best  lawyer  was  also  the  worst  shot  in  all  Eng- 
land, Eldon  gave  the  petitioner  the  desired  preferment. 


Mirth.  401 

"  But  now,"  the  old  Chancellor  used  to  add  in  conclu- 
sion, whenever  he  told  the  story,  "  see  the  ingratitude  of 
mankind.  It  was  not  long  before  a  large  present  of  game 
reached  me,  with  a  letter  from  my  new-made  rector,  pur- 
porting that  he  had  sent  it  to  me,  because  from  what  he 
had  seen  of  my  shooting  he  supposed  I  must  be  badly  off 
for  game.  Think  of  turning  upon  me  in  this  way,  and 
wounding  me  in  my  tenderest  point." 

Amongst  Eldon's  humorous  answers  to  applications  for 
preferment  should  be  remembered  his  letter  to  Dr.  Fisher 
of  the  Charterhouse  :  on  one  side  of  a  sheet  of  paper, 
"  Dear  Fisher,  I  cannot,  to-day,  give  you  the  preferment 
for  which  you  ask. — I  remain  your  sincere  friend,  Eldon. 
— Turn  over;"  and  on  the  other  side,  "  I  gave  it  to  you 
yesterday."  This  note  reminds  us  of  Erskine's  reply  to 
Sir  John  Sinclair's  solicitation  for  a  subscription  to  the 
testimonial  which  Sir  John  invited  the  nation  to  present 
to  himself.  On  the  one  side  of  a  sheet  of  paper  it  ran, 
"  My  dear  Sir  John,  I  am  certain  there  are  few  in  this 
kingdom  who  set  a  higher  value  on  your  services  than 
myself,  and  I  have  the  honor  to  subscribe,"  and  on  the 
other  side  it  concluded,  "  myself  your  obedient  faithful 
servant,  Ekskike." 


PART  IX. 

AT  HOME  :  IN  COURT :   AM)  IN  SOCIETY. 


CHAPTER  XLV. 

LAWYER8   AT   THEIB   OWN    TABLES. 

ALONG  list,  indeed,  might  be  made  of  abstemious 
lawyers  ;  but  their  temperance  is  almost  invariably 
mentioned  by  biographers  as  matter  for  regret  and  apol- 
ogy, and  is  even  made  an  occasion  for  reproach  in  cases 
where  it  has  not  been  palliated  by  habits  of  munificent 
hospitality.  In  the  catalogue  of  Chancellor  "Warham's 
virtues  and  laudable  usages,  Erasmus  takes  care  to  men- 
tion that  the  primate  was  accustomed  to  entertain  his 
friends,  to  the  number  of  two  hundred  at  a  time  :  and 
when  the  man  of  letters  notices  the  archbishop's  modera- 
tion with  respect  to  wines  and  dishes — a  moderation  that 
caused  his  grace  to  eschew  suppers,  and  never  to  sit  more 
than  an  hour  at  dinner — he  does  not  omit  to  observe  that 
though  the  great  man  "  made  it  a  rule  to  abstain  entirely 
from  supper,  yet  if  his  friends  were  assembled  at  that 
meal  he  would  sit  down  along  with  them  and  promote 
their  conviviality." 

Splendid  in  all  things,  Wolsey  astounded  envious'  no- 


At  Home:  in  Court:  and  in  Society.  403 

bles  by  the  magnificence  of  his  banquets,  and  the  lavish 
expenses  of  his  kitchens,  wherein  his  master-cooks  wore 
raiment  of  richest  materials — the  chef  of  his  private 
kitchen  daily  arraying  himself  in  a  damask-satin  or  vel- 
vet, and  wearing  on  his  neck  a  chain  of  gold.  Of  a  far 
other  kind  were  the  tastes  of  Wolsey's  successor,  who,  in 
the  warmest  sunshine  of  his  power,  preferred  a  quiet  din- 
ner with  Erasmus  to  the  pompous  display  of  state  ban- 
quets, and  who  wore  a  gleeful  light  in  his  countenance 
when,  after  his  fall,  he  called  his  children  and  grand-chil- 
dren about  him,  and  said  :  "I  have  been  brought  up  at 
Oxford,  at  an  Trm  of  Chancery,  at  Lincoln's  Inn,  and  in 
the  King's  Court — from  the  lowest  degree  to  the  highest, 
and  yet  have  I  in  yearly  revenues  at  this  present,  little 
left  me  above  a  hundred  pounds  by  the  year  ;  so  that  now, 
if  we  wish  to  live  together,  you  must  be  content  to  be 
contributaries  together.  But  my  counsel  is  that  we  fall 
not  to  the  lowest  fare  first ;  we  will  not,  therefore,  de- 
scend to  Oxford  fare,  nor  to  the  fare  of  New  Inn,  but  we 
will  begin  with  Lincoln's  Inn  diet,  where  many  right  wor- 
shipful men  of  great  account  and  good  years  do  live  full 
well ;  which  if  we  find  ourselves  the  first  year  not  able  to 
maintain,  then  will  we  in  the  next  year  come  down  to 
Oxford  fare,  where  many  great,  learned,  and  ancient 
fathers  and  doctors  are  continually  conversant ;  which  if 
our  purses  stretch  not  to  maintain  neither;  then  may  we 
after,  with  bag  and  wallet,  go  a-begging  together,  hoping 
that  for  pity  some  good  folks  will  give  us  their  charity 
and  at  every  man's  door  to  sing  a  Salve  Regina,  whereby 
we  shall  keep  company  and  be  merry  together." 

Students  recalling  the  social  life  of  England  should 
bear  in  mind  the  hours  kept  by  our  ancestors  in  the  four- 
teenth and  two  following  centuries.  Under  the  Planta- 
genets  noblemen  used  to  sup  at  five  p.  m.,  and  dine  some- 
where about  the  breakfast  hour  of  Mayfair  in  a  modern 


404  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

London  season.  Gradually  hours  became  later  ;  but  un- 
der the  Tudors  the  ordinary  dinner  hour  for  gentlepeople 
was  somewhere  about  eleven  a.  m.,  and  their  usual  time 
for  supping  was  between  five  p.  m.  and  six  p.  m.,  trades- 
men, merchants  and  farmers  dining  and  supping  at  later 
hours  than  their  social  superiors.  "  With  us,"  says  Hall 
the  chronicler,"  the  nobility,  gentry,  and  students,  do  or- 
dinarily go  to  dinner  at  eleven  before  noon,  and  to  sup- 
per at  five,  or  between  five  and  six,  at  afternoon.  The 
merchants  dine  and  sup  seldom  before  twelve  at  noon  and 
six  at  night.  The  husbandmen  also  dine  at  high  noon  as 
they  call  it,  and  sup  at  seven  or  eight ;  but  out  of  term 
in  our  universities  the  scholars  dine  at  ten."  Thus  whilst 
the  idlers  of  society  made  haste  to  eat  and  drink,  the . 
workers  postponed  the  pleasures  of  the  table  until  they 
had  made  a  good  morning's  work.  In  the  days  of  morn- 
ing dinners  and  afternoon  suppers,  the  law-courts  used 
to  be  at  the  height  of  their  daily  business  at  an  hour 
when  Templars  of  the  present  generation  have  seldom 
risen  from  bed.  Chancellors  were  accustomed  to  com- 
mence their  daily  sittings  in  Westminster  at  seven  a.  m. 
in  summer,  and  at  eight  a.  m.  in  winter  months.  Lord 
Keeper  Williams,  who  endeavored  to  atone  for  want  of 
law  by  extraordinarily  assiduous  attention  to  the  duties 
of  his  office,  used  indeed  to  open  his  winter  sittings  by 
candlelight  between  six  and  seven  o'clock. 

Many  were  the  costly  banquets  of  which  successive 
Chancellors  invited  the  nobility,  the  judges,  and  the  bar, 
to  partake  at  old  York  House ;  but  of  all  the  holders  of 
the  Great  Seal  who  exercised  pompous  hospitality  in  that 
picturesque  palace,  Francis  Bacon  was  the  most  liberal, 
gracious,  and  delightful  entertainer.  Where  is  the  stu- 
dent of  English  history  who  has  not  often  endeavored  to 
imagine  the  scene  when  Ben  Jonson  sat  amongst  the  hon- 
ored guests  of 


At  Some:  in  Court:  and  in  Society.  405 

"  England's  high  Chancellor,  the  destin'd  heir, 
In  his  soft  cradle,  to  his  father's  ohair," 

and  little  prescient  of  the  coming  storm,  spoke  of  his 
host  as  one 

"  Whose  even  thread  the  Fates  spin  round  and  full, 
Out  of  their  choicest  and  their  whitest  wool." 

Even  at  the  present  day  lawyers  have  reason  to  be 
grateful  to  Bacon  for  the  promptitude  with  which,  on 
taking  possession  of  the  Marble  Chair,  he  revived  the 
ancient  usages  of  earlier  holders  of  the  seal,  and  set  an 
example  of  courteous,  hospitality  to  the  bar,  which  no 
subsequent  Chancellor  has  been  able  to  disregard  with- 
out loss  of  respect  and  prestige.  Though  a  short  attack 
of  gout  qualified  the  new  pleasure  of  his  elevation — an 
attack  attributed  by  the  sufferer  to  his  removal  "  from  a 
field  air  to  a  Thames  air,"  i.  e.,  from  Gray's  Inn  to  the 
south  side  of  the  Strand — Lord  Keeper  Bacon  lost  no 
time  in  summoning  the  judges  and  most  eminent  barris- 
ters to  his  table  ;  and  though  the  gravity  of  his  indispo- 
sition, or  the  dignity  of  his  office,  forbade  him  to  join  in 
the  feast,  he  sat  and  spoke  pleasantly  with  them  when  the 
dishes  had  been  removed.  "  Yesterday,"  he  wrote  to 
Buckingham,  "  which  was  my  weary  day,  I  bid  all  the 
judges  to  dinner,  which  was  not  used  to  be,  and  enter- 
tained them  in  a  private  withdrawing  chamber  with  the 
learned  counsel.  When  the  feast  was  past  I  came  amongst 
them  and  sat  me  down  at  the  end  of  the  table,  and  prayed 
them  to  think  I  was  one  of  them,  and  but  a  foreman." 
Nor  let  us,  whilst  recalling  Bacon's  bounteous  hospitali- 
ties, fail  in  justice  to  his  great  rival,  Sir  Edward  Coke — 
who,  though  he  usually  held  himself  aloof  from  frivolous 
amusements,  and  cared  but  little  for  expensive  repasts, 
would  with  a  liberal  hand  place  lordly  dishes  before  lordly 
guests  ;  and  of  whom  it  is  recorded  in  the  '  Apophtheg- 


406  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

mes,'  that  when  any  great  visitor  dropped  in  upon  him 
for  pot-luck  without  notice  he  was  wont  to  say,  "  Sir, 
since  you  sent  me  no  notice  of  your  coming,  you  must 
dine  with  me  ;  but  if  I  had  known  of  it  in  due  time  I 
would  have  dined  with  you." 

From  such  great  men  as  Lord  Nottingham  and  Lord 
Guildford,  who  successively  kept  high  state  in  Queen 
Street,  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields,  to  fat  puisnes  occupying 
snug  houses  in  close  proximity  to  the  Inns  of  Court,  and 
lower  downwards  to  leaders  of  the  bar  and  juniors  sleep- 
ing as  well  as  working  in  chambers,  the  Restoration  law- 
yers were  conspicuous  promoters  of  the  hilarity  which 
was  one  of  the  most  prominent  and  least  "offensive  char- 
acteristics of  Charles  II. 's  London.  Lord  Nottingham's 
sumptuous  hospitalities  were  the  more  creditable,  because 
he  voluntarily  relinquished  his  claim  to  £4000  per  annum, 
which  the  royal  bounty  had  assigned  him  as  a  fund  to  be 
expended  in  official  entertainments.  Similar  praise 
cannot  be  awarded  to  Lord  Guildford  ;  but  justice 
compels  the  admission  that,  notwithstanding  his  love  of 
money,  he  maintained  the  prestige  of  his  place,  so  far  as 
a  hospitable  table  and  profuse  domestic  expenditure  could 
support  it. 

Contrasting  strongly  with  the  lawyers  of  this  period, 
who  copied  in  miniature  the  impressive  state  of  Claren- 
don's princely  establishments,  were  the  jovial,  catch-sing- 
ing, three-bottle  lawyers — who  preferred  drunkenness  to 
pomp ;  an  oaken  table,  surrounded  by  jolly  fellows,  to 
ante-rooms  crowded  with  obsequious  courtiers  ;  a  hunt- 
ing song  with  a  brave  chorus  to  the  less  stormy  diversion 
of  polite  conversation.  Of  these  free-living  lawyers, 
George  Jeffreys  was  a  conspicuous  leader.  Not  averse  to 
display,  and  not  incapable  of  shining  in  refined  society, 
this  notorious  man  loved  good  cheer  and  jolly  companions 
beyond  all  other  sources  of  excitement ;  and  during  his 


At  Home:  in  Gourt:  and  in  Society,  407 

tenure  of  the  seals,  he  was  never  more  happy  than  when 
he  was  presiding  over  a  company  of  sharp-witted  men- 
about-town  whom  he  had  invited  to  indulge  in  wild  talk 
and  choice  wine  at  his  mansion  that  overlooked  the  lawns, 
the  water,  and  the  trees  of  St.  James's  Park.  On  such 
occasions  his  lordship's  most  valued  boon  companion  was 
Mountfort,  the  comedian,  whom  he  had  taken  from  the 
stage  and  made  a  permanent  officer  of  the  Duke  Street 
household.  •  "Whether  the  actor  was  required  to  discharge 
any  graver  functions  in  the  Chancellor's  establishment 
is  unknown  ;  but  we  have  Sir  John  Keresby's  testimony 
that  the  clever  mimic  and  brilliant  libertine  was  employed 
to  amuse  his  lordship's  guests  by  ridiculing  the  personal 
and  mental  peculiarities  of  the  judges  and  most  eminent 
barristers.  "  I  dined,"  records  Sir  John,  "  with  the  Lord 
Chancellor,  where  the  Lord  Mayor  of  London  was  a 
guest,  and  some  other  gentlemen.  His  lordship  having, 
according  to  custom,  drunk  deep  at  dinner,  called  for  one 
Mountfort,  a  gentleman  of  his,  who  had  been  a  comedian, 
an  excellent  mimic  ;  and  to  divert  the  company,  as  he  was 
pleased  to  term  it,  he  made  him  plead  before  him  in  a 
feigned  cause,  during  which  he  aped  the  judges,  and  all  the 
great  lawyers  of  the  age,  in  tone  of  voice  and  in  action 
and  gesture  of  body,  to  the  very  great  ridicule,  not  only 
of  the  lawyers,  but  of  the  law  itself,  which  to  me  did  not 
seem  altogether  prudent  in  a  man  in  his  lofty  station  in 
the  law ;  diverting  it  certainly  was,  but  prudent  in  the 
Lord  Chancellor  I  shall  never  think  it."  The  fun  of 
Mountfort's  imitations  was  often  heightened  by  the  pres- 
ence of  the  persons  whom  they  held  up  to  derision — some 
of  whom  would  see  and  express  natural  displeasure  at 
the  affront;  whilst  others,  quite  unconscious  of  their  own 
peculiarities,  joined  loudly  in  the  laughter  that  was  di- 
rected against  themselves. 

As  pet  buffoon  of  the  tories  about  town,  Mountfort 


406  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

mes,'  that  when  any  great  visitor  dropped  in  upon  him 
for  pot-luck  without  notice  he  was  wont  to  say,  "  Sir, 
since  you  sent  me  no  notice  of  your  coming,  you  must 
dine  with  me ;  but  if  I  had  known  of  it  in  due  time  I 
would  have  dined  with  you." 

From  such  great  men  as  Lord  Nottingham  and  Lord 
Guildford,  who  successively  kept  high  state  in  Queen 
Street,  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields,  to  fat  puisnes  occupying 
snug  houses  in  close  proximity  to  the  Inns  of  Court,  and 
lower  downwards  to  leaders  of  the  bar  and  juniors  sleep- 
ing as  well  as  working  in  chambers,  the  Restoration  law- 
yers were  conspicuous  promoters  of  the  hilarity  which 
was  one  of  the  most  prominent  and  least  ^offensive  char- 
acteristics of  Charles  II. 's  London.  Lord  Nottingham's 
sumptuous  hospitalities  were  the  more  creditable,  because 
he  voluntarily  relinquished  his  claim  to  £4000  per  annum, 
which  the  royal  bounty  had  assigned  him  as  a  fund  to  be 
expended  in  official  entertainments.  Similar  praise 
cannot  be  awarded  to  Lord  Guildford  ;  but  justice 
compels  the  admission  that,  notwithstanding  his  love  of 
money,  he  maintained  the  prestige  of  his  place,  so  far  as 
a  hospitable  table  and  profuse  domestic  expenditure  could 
support  it. 

Contrasting  strongly  with  the  lawyers  of  this  period, 
who  copied  in  miniature  the  impressive  state  of  Claren- 
don's princely  establishments,  were  the  jovial,  catch-sing- 
ing, three-bottle  lawyers — who  preferred  drunkenness  to 
pomp ;  an  oaken  table,  surrounded  by  jolly  fellows,  to 
ante-rooms  crowded  with  obsequious  courtiers  ;  a  hunt- 
ing song  with  a  brave  chorus  to  the  less  stormy  diversion 
of  polite  conversation.  Of  these  free-living  lawyers, 
George  Jeffreys  was  a  conspicuous  leader.  Not  averse  to 
display,  and  not  incapable  of  shining  in  refined  society, 
this  notorious  man  loved  good  cheer  and  jolly  companions 
beyond  all  other  sources  of  excitement ;  and  during  his 


At  Home:  in  Court:  and  in  Society.  407 

tenure  of  the  seals,  he  was  never  more  happy  than  when 
he  was  presiding  over  a  company  of  sharp-witted  men- 
about-town  whom  he  had  invited  to  indulge  in  wild  talk 
and  choice  wine  at  his  mansion  that  overlooked  the  lawns, 
the  water,  and  the  trees  of  St.  James's  Park.  On  such 
occasions  his  lordship's  most  valued  boon  companion  was 
Mountfort,  the  comedian,  whom  he  had  taken  from  the 
stage  and  made  a  permanent  officer  of  the  Duke  Street 
household.  '"Whether  the  actor  was  required  to  discharge 
any  graver  functions  in  the  Chancellor's  establishment 
is  unknown  ;  but  we  have  Sir  John  Reresby's  testimony 
that  the  clever  mimic  and  brilliant  libertine  was  employed 
to  amuse  his  lordship's  guests  by  ridiculing  the  personal 
and  mental  peculiarities  of  the  judges  and  most  eminent 
barristers.  "  I  dined,"  records  Sir  John,  "  with  the  Lord 
Chancellor,  where  the  Lord  Mayor  of  London  was  a 
guest,  and  some  other  gentlemen.  His  lordship  having, 
according  to  custom,  drunk  deep  at  dinner,  called  for  one 
Mountfort,  a  gentleman  of  his,  who  had  been  a  comedian, 
an  excellent  mimic  ;  and  to  divert  the  company,  as  he  was 
pleased  to  term  it,  he  made  him  plead  before  him  in  a 
feigned  cause,  during  which  he  aped  the  judges,  and  all  the 
great  lawyers  of  the  age,  in  tone  of  voice  and  in  action 
and  gesture  of  body,  to  the  very  great  ridicule,  not  only 
of  the  lawyers,  but  of  the  law  itself,  which  to  me  did  not 
seem  altogether  prudent  in  a  man  in  his  lofty  station  in 
the  law ;  diverting  it  certainly  was,  but  prudent  in  the 
Lord  Chancellor  I  shall  never  think  it."  The  fun  of 
Mountfort's  imitations  was  often  heightened  by  the  pres- 
ence of  the  persons  whom  they  held  up  to  derision — some 
of  whom  would  see  and  express  natural  displeasure  at 
the  affront;  whilst  others,  quite  unconscious  of  their  own 
peculiarities,  joined  loudly  in  the  laughter  that  was  di- 
rected against  themselves. 

As  pet  buffoon  of  the  tories  about  town,  Mountfort 


408  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

was  followed,  at  a  considerable  distance  of  time,  by  Est- 
court — an  actor  who  united  wit  and  fine  humor  with,  irre- 
sistible powers  of  mimicry;  and  who  contrived  to  acquire 
the  respect  and  affectionate  regard  of  many  of  those 
famous  "Whigs  whom  it  was  alike  his  pleasure  and  his 
business  to  render  ridiculous.  In  the  Spectator  Steele 
paid  him  a  tribu  te  of  cordial  admiration  ;  and  Cibber, 
noticing  the  marvellous  fidelity  of  his  imitations,  has  re- 
corded, "  This  man  was  so  amazing  and  extraordinary  a 
mimic,  that  no  man  or  woman,  from  the  coquette  to  the 
privy  counsellor,  ever  moved  or  spoke  before  him.  but  he 
could  carry  their  voice,  look,  mien,  and  motion  instantly 
into  another  company.  I  have  heard  him  make  long 
harangues,  and  form  various  arguments,  even  in  the  man- 
ner of  thinking  of  an  eminent  pleader  at  the  bar,  with 
every  the  least  article  and  singularity  of  his  utterance  so 
perfectly  imitated,  that  he  was  the  very  alter  ipse,  scarce 
to  be  distinguished  from  the  original." 

With  the  exception  of  Kenyon  and  Eldon,  and  one  or 
two  less  conspicuous  instances  of  judicial  penuriousness, 
the  judges  of  the  Georgian  period  were  hospitable  enter- 
tainers. Chief  Justice  Lee,  who  died  in  1754,  gained 
credit  for  an  adequate  knowledge  of  law  by  the  sumptu- 
ousness  and  frequency  of  the  dinners  with  which  he  re- 
galed his  brothers  of  the  bench  and  learned  counsellors. 
Chief  Justice  Mansfield's  habitual  temperance  and  com- 
parative indifference  to  the  pleasures  of  the  table  did  not 
cause  him  to  be  neglectful  of  hospitable  duties.  Not- 
withstanding the  cold  formality  of  Lord  Hardwicke's  en- 
tertainments, and  the  charges  of  niggardliness  preferred 
against  Lady  Hardwicke's  domestic  system  by  'Opposi- 
tion satirists,  Philip  Yorke  used  to  entertain  the  chiefs 
of  his  profession  with  pomp,  if  not  with  affability. 
Thurlow  entertained  a  somewhat  too  limited  circle  of 
friends  with  English  fare  ami  a  superabundance  of  choice 


At  Home:  in  Court:  and  in  Society.  409 

port  in  Great  Ormond  Street.  Throughout  his  public 
career,  Alexander  Wedderburn  was  a  lavish  and  delight- 
ful host,  amply  atoning  in  the  opinion  of  frivolous  society 
for  his  political  falsity  by  the  excellence  and  number  of 
his  grand  dinners.  On  entering  the  place  of  Solicitor- 
General,  he  spent  £8000  on  a  service  of  plate  ;  and  as 
Lord  Loughborough  he  gratified  the  bar  and  dazzled  the 
fashionable  world  by  hospitality  alike  sumptuous  and 
brilliant. 

Several  of  the  Georgian  lawyers  had  strong  predilec- 
tions for  particular  dishes  or  articles  of  diet.  Thurlow 
was  very  fanciful  about  his  fruit ;  and  in  his  later  years 
he  would  give  way  to  ludicrous  irritability,  if  inferior 
grapes  or  faulty  peaches  were  placed  before  him.  At 
Brighton,  in  his  declining  years,  the  ex-Chancelior's  in- 
dignation at  a  dish  of  defective  wall-fruit  was  so  lively 
that — to  the  inexpressible  astonishment  of  Home  Tooke 
and  other  guests— he  caused  the  whole  of  a  very  fine 
dessert  to  be  thrown  out  of  the  window  upon  the  Marine 
Parade.  Baron  Graham's  weakness  was  for  oysters, 
eaten  as  a  preparatory  whet  to  the  appetite  before  din- 
ner; and  it  is  recorded  of  him  that  on  a  certain  occasion, 
when  he  had  been  indulging  in  this  favorite  pre-prandial 
exercise,  he  observed  with  pleasant  humor — "  Oysters 
taken  before  dinner  are  said  to  sharpen  the  appetite  ;  but 
I  have  just  consumed  half-a-barrel  of  fine  natives — and 
speaking  honestly,  I  am  bound  to  say  that  I  don't  feel 
quite  as  hungry  as  when  I  began."  Thomas  Manners 
Sutton's  peculiar  penchant  was  for  salads  ;  and  in  a  mo- 
ment of  impulsive  kindness  he  gave  Lady  Morgan  the 
recipe  for  his  favorite  salad — a  compound  of  rare  merit 
and  mysterious  properties.  Bitterly  did  the  old  lawyer 
repent  his  unwise  munificence  when  he  read  '  O'Donnell.' 
"Warmly  displeased  with  the  political  sentiments  of  the 
novel,  he  ordered  it  to  be  burnt  in  the  servants'  hall,  and 
18 


410  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

exclaimed,  peevishly,  to  Lady  Manners,  "  I  wish  I  had 
not  given  her  the  secret  of  my  salad."  In  no  culinary 
product  did  Lord  Ellenborough  find  greater  delight  than 
lobster-sauce;  and  he  gave  expression  to  his  high  regard 
for  that  soothing  and  delicate  compound  when  he  decided 
that  persons  engaged  in  lobster-fishery  were  exempt  from 
legal  liability  to  impressment.  "  Then  is  not,"  inquired 
his  lordship,  with  solemn  pathos,  "  the  lobster-fishery  a 
fishery,  and  a  most  important  fishery,  of  this  kingdom, 
though  carried  on  in  shallow  water?  The  framers  of  the 
law  well  knew  that  the  produce  of  the  deep  sea,  without 
the  produce  of  the  shallow  water,  would  be  of  compara- 
tively small  value,  and  intended  that  turbot,  when  placed 
upon  our  tables,  should  be  flanked  by  good  lobster-sauce." 
Eldon's  singular  passion  for  fried  '  liver  and  bacon  '  was 
amongst  his  most  notorious  and  least  pleasant  peculiari- 
ties. Even  the  Prince  Regent  condescended  to  humor 
this  remarkable  taste  by  ordering  a  dish  of  liver  and 
bacon  to  be  placed  on  the  table  when  the  Chancellor 
dined  with  him  at  Brighton.  Sir  John  Leach,  Master  of 
the  Rolls,  was  however  less  ready  to  pander  to  a  depraved 
appetite.  Lord  Eldon  said,  "  It  will  give  me  great  plea- 
sure to  dine  with  you,  and  since  you  are  good  enough  to 
ask  me  to  order  a  dish  that  shall  test  your  new  chefs 
powers — I  wish  you'd  tell  your  Frenchman  to  fry  some 
liver  and  bacon  for  me."  "  Are  you  laughing  at  me  or 
my  cook  ?"  asked  Sir  John  Leach,  stiffly,  thinking  that 
the  Chancellor'  was  bent  on  ridiculing  his  luxurious  mode 
of  living.  "  At  neither,"  answered  Eldon,  with  equal 
simplicity  and  truth  ;  "  I  was  only  ordering  the  dish  which 
I  enjoy  beyond  all  other  dishes." 

Although  Eldon's  penuriousness  was  grossly  exagger- 
ated by  his  detractors,  it  cannot  be  questioned  that  either 
through  indolence,  or  love  of  money,  or  some  other  khu' 
of  selfishness,  he  was  very  neglectful  of  his  hospitable 


At  Some:  in  Court:  and  in  Society.  411 

duties  to  the  bench  and  the  bar.  "  Verily  he  is  working 
off  the  arrears  of  the  Lord  Chancellor,"  said  Romilly, 
when  Sir  Thomas  Plummer,  the  Master  of  the  Rolls,  gave 
a  succession  of  dinners  to  the  bar;  and  such  a  remark 
would  not  have  escaped  the  lips  of  the  decorous  and 
amiable  Romilly  had  not  circumstances  fully  justified  it. 
Still  it  is  unquestionable  that  Eldon's  Cabinet  dinners 
were  suitably  expensive;  and  that  he  never  grudged  his 
choicest  port  to  the  old  attorneys  and  subordinate  place- 
men who  were  his  obsequious  companions  towards  the 
close  of  his  career.  For  the  charges  of  sordid  parsimony 
so  frequently  preferred  against  Kenyon  it  is  to  be  feared 
there  were  better  grounds.  Under  the  steadily  strength- 
ening spell  of  avarice  he  ceased  to  invite  even  old  friends 
to  his  table;  and  it  was  rumored  that  in  course  of  time 
his  domestic  servants  complained  with  reason  that  they 
were  required  to  consume  the  same  fare  as  their  master 
deemed  sufficient  for  himself.  "In  Lord  Kenyon's 
house,"  a  wit  exclaimed,  "  all  the  year  through  it  is  Lent 
in  the  kitchen,  and  Passion  Week  in  the  Parlor." 
Another  caustic  quidnunc  remarked,  "  In  his  lordship's 
kitchen  the  fire  is  dull,  but  the  spits  are  always  bright ;" 
whereupon  Jekyll  interposed  with  an  assumption  of  tes- 
tiness,  "Spits!  in  the  name  of  common  sense  I  order 
you  not  to  talk  about  his  spits,  for  nothing  turns  upon 
them." 

Very  different  was  the  temper  of  Erskine,  who  spent 
money  faster  than  Kenyon  saved  it,  and  who  died  in  in- 
digence after  holding  the  Great  Seal  of  England,  and 
making  for  many  years  a  finer  income  at  the  bar  than 
any  of  his  contemporaries  not  enjoying  crown  patronage. 
Many  are  the  bright  pictures  preserved  to  us  of  his  hos- 
pitality to  politicians  and  lawyers,  wits,  and  people  of 
fashion ;  but  none  of  the  scenes  is  more  characteristic 
than  the  dinner  described  by  Sir  Samuel  Romilly,  when 


412  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

that  good  man  met  at  Erskine's  Hampstead  villa  the 
chiefs  of  the  opposition  and  Mr.  Pinkney,  the  American 
Minister.  "  Among  the  light,  trifling  topics  of  conversa- 
tion after  dinner,"  says  Sir  Samuel  Romilly,  "  it  may  be 
worth  while  to  mention  one,  as  it  strongly  characterizes 
Lord  Erskine.  He  has  always  expressed  and  felt  a  strong 
sympathy  with  animals.  He  has  talked  for  years  of  a 
bill  he  was  to  bring  into  parliament  to  prevent  cruelty 
towards  them.  He  has  always  had  some  favorite  ani- 
mals to  whom  he  has  been  much  attached,  and  of  whom 
all  his  acquaintance  have  a  number  of  anecdotes  to  relate; 
a  favorite  dog  which  he  used  to  bring,  when  he  was 
at  the  bar,  to  all  his  consultations ;  another  favorite 
dog,  which,  at  the  time  when  he  was  Lord  Chancellor, 
he  himself  rescued  in  the  street  from  some  boys  who 
were  about  to  kill  it  under  the  pretence  of  its  being  mad; 
a  favorite  goose,  which  followed  him  wherever  he 
walked  about  his  grounds;  a  favorite  macaw,  and  other 
dumb  favorites  without  number.  He  told  us  now  that  he 
had  got  two  favorite  leeches.  He  had  been  blooded  by 
them  last  autumn  when  he  had  been  taken  dangerously 
ill  at  Portsmouth ;  they  had  saved  his  life,  and  he 
had  brought  them  with  him  to  town,  had  ever  since  kept 
them  in  a  glass,  had  himself  every  day  given  them  fresh 
water,  and  had  formed  a  friendship  for  them.  He  said  he 
was  sure  they  both  knew  him  and  were  grateful  to  him. 
He  had  given  them  different  names,  *  Home '  and  '  Cline  ' 
(the  names  of  two  celebrated  surgeons),  their  dispositions 
being  quite  different  After  a  good  deal  of  conversation 
about  them,  he  went  himself,  brought  them  out  of  his 
library,  and  placed  them  in  their  glass  upon  the  table.  It 
is  impossible,  however,  without  the  vivacity,  the  tones, 
the  details,  and  the  gestures  of  Lord  Erskine,  to  give  an 
adequate  idea  of  this  singular  scene."  Amongst  the  lis- 
teners to  Erskine,  whilst  he  spoke  eloquently  and  with 


At  Home:  in  Court:  and  in  Society.  413 

fervor  of  the  virtues  of  his  two  leeches,  were  the  Duke  of 
Norfolk,  Lord  Grenville,  Lord  Grey,  Lord  Holland,  Lord 
Ellenborough,  Lord  Lauderdale,  Lord  Henry  Petty,  and 
Thomas  Grenville. 


CHAPTEE  XLVI. 

WINE. 


FROM  the  time  when  Francis  Bacon  attributed  a  sharp 
attack  of  gout  to  his  removal  from  Gray's  Inn 
Fields  to  the  river  side,  to  a  time  not  many  years  distant 
when  Sir  Herbert  Jenner  Fust*  used  to  be  brought  into 
his  court  in  Doctors'  Commons  and  placed  in  the  judicial 
seat  by  two  liveried  porters,  lawyers  were  not  remarkable 
for  abstinence  from  the  pleasures  to  which  our  ancestors 
were  indebted  for  the  joint-fixing,  picturesque  gout  that 
has  already  become  an  affair '  of  the  past.  Throughout 
the  long  period  that  lies  between  Charles  FL's  restoration 
and  George  DH.'s  death,  an  English  judge  without  a 
symptom  of  gout  was  so  exceptional  a  character  that 
people  talked  of  him  as  an  interesting  social  curiosity. 


*  In  old  Sir  Herbert's  later  days  it  was  a  mere  pleasantry,  or  bold  figure  of  speech 
to  say  that  his  court  had  risen,  for  he  used  to  be  lifted  from  his  chair  and  carried 
bodily  from  the  chamber  of  justice  by  two  brawny  footmen.  Of  course,  as  soon 
as  the  judge  was  about  to  be  elevated  by  his  bearers,  the  bar  rose;  and  also  as  a 
matter  of  course  the  bar  continued  to  stand  until  the  strong  porters  had  conveyed 
their  weighty  and  venerable  burden  along  the  platform  behind  one  of  the  rows  of 
advocates  and  out  of  sight.  As  the  trio  worked  their  laborious  way  along  the  plat- 
form, there  seemed  to  be  some  danger  that  they  might  blunder  and  fall  through 
one  of  the  windows  into  the  space  behind  the  court;  and  at  a  time  when  Sir  Her- 
bert and  Dr. were  at  open  variance,  that  waspish  advocate  had  on  one  occasion 

the  bad  taste  to  keep  his  seat  at  the  rising  of  the  court,  and  with  characteristic 
malevolence  of  expression  to  say  to  the  footmen,  "  Mind,  my  men,  and  take  care 
of  that  judge  of  yours — or,  by  Jove,  you'll  pitch  him  out  of  the  window."  It  is 
needless  to  say  that  this  brutal  speech  did  not  raise  the  speaker  in  the  opinion  of 
the  hearers. 


414  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

The  Merry  Monarch  made  Clarendon's  bedroom  his 
council-chamber  when  the  Chancellor  was  confined  to  his 
couch  by  podagra.  Lord  Nottingham  was  so  disabled  by 
gout,  and  what  the  old  physicians  were  pleased  to  call  a 
'perversity  of  the  humors,'  that  his  duties  in  the  House 
of  Lords  were  often  discharged  by  Francis  North,  then 
Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas;  and  though  he  per- 
severed in  attending  to  the  business  of  his  court,  a  man 
of  less  resolution  would  have  altogether  succumbed  to 
the  agony  of  his  disease  and  the  burden  of  his  infirmities. 
"I  have  known  him,"  says  Roger  North,  "sit  to  hear 
petitions  in  great  pain,  and  say  that  his  servants  had 
let  him  out,  though  he  was  fitter  for  his  chamber."  Pru- 
dence saved  Lord  Guildford  from  excessive  intemper- 
ance; but  Tie  lived  with  a  freedom  that  would  be  remark- 
able in  the  present  age.  Chief  Justice  Saunders  was  a 
confirmed  sot,  taking  nips  of  brandy  with  his  breakfast, 
and  seldom  appearing  in  public  "  without  a  pot  of  ale  at 
his  nose  or  near  him."  Sir  Robert  Wright  was  notori- 
ously addicted  to  wine;  and  George  Jeffreys  drank,  as  he 
swore,  like  a  trooper.  "  My  lord,"  said  King  Charles,  in 
a  significant  tone,  when  he  gave  Jeffreys  the  blood-stone 
ring,  "  as  it  is  a  hot  summer,  and  you  are  going  fhe  cir- 
cuit, I  desire  you  will  not  drink  too  much." 

Amongst  the  reeling  judges  of  the  Restoration,  how- 
ever, there  moved  one  venerable  lawyer,  who,  in  an  age 
when  moralists  hesitated  to  call  drunkenness  a  vice,  was 
remarkable  for  sobriety.  In  his  youth,  whilst  he  was  in- 
dulging with  natural  ardor  in  youthful  pleasures,  Chief 
Justice  Hale  was  so  struck  with  horror  at  seeing  an  inti- 
mate friend  drop  senseless,  and  apparently  lifeless,  at  a 
student's  drinking-bout,  that  he  made  a  sudden  but  en- 
during resolution  to  conquer  his  ebrious  propensities,  and 
withdraw  himself  from  the  dangerous  allurements  of  un- 
godly company.     Falling  upon  his  knees  he  prayed  the 


At  Home:  in  Court:  and.  in  Society.  415 

Almighty  to  rescue  his  friend  from  the  jaws  of  death,  and 
also  to  strengthen  him  to  keep  his  newly-formed  resolu- 
tion. He  rose  an  altered  man.  But  in  an  age  when  the 
barbarous  usage  of  toast-drinking  was  in  full  force,  he 
felt  that  he  could  not  be  an  habitually  sober  man  if  he 
mingled  in  society,  and  obeyed  a  rule  which  required  the 
man  of  delicate  and  excitable  nerves  to  drink  as  much, 
bumper  for  bumper,  as  the  man  whose  sluggish  system 
could  receive  a  quart  of  spirits  at  a  sitting  and  yet  scarcely 
experience  a  change  of  sensation.  At  that  time  it  was 
customary  with  prudent  men  to  protect  themselves  against 
a  pernicious  and  tyrannous  custom,  by  taking  a  vow  to 
abstain  from  toast-drinking,  or  even  from  drinking  wine 
at  all,  for  a  certain  stated  period.  Readers  do  not  need 
to  be  reminded  how  often  young  Pepys  was  under  a  vow 
not  to  drink;  and  the  device  by  which  the  jovial  admir- 
alty clerk  strengthened  an  infirm  will  and  defended  him- 
self against  temptation  was  frequently  employed  by  right- 
minded  young  men  of  his  date.  In  some  cases,  instead 
of  vowing  not  to  drink,  they  bound  themselves  not  to  drink 
within  a  certain  period;  two  persons,  that  is  to  say, 
agreeing  that  they  would  abstain  from  wine  and  spirits 
for  a  certain  period,  and  each  binding  himself  in  case  he 
broke  the  compact  to  pay  over  a  certain  sum  of  money  to 
his  partner  in  the  bond.  Young  Hale  saw  that  to  effect 
a  complete  reformation  of  his  life  it  was  needful  for  him 
to  abjure  the  practice  of  drinking  healths.  He  therefore 
vowed  never  again  to  drink  a  health;  and  he  kept  his  vow. 
Never  again  did  he  brim  his  bumper  and  drain  it  at  the 
command  of  a  toast-master,  although  his  abstinence  ex- 
posed him  to  much  annoyance ;  and  in  his  old  age  he  thus 
urged  his  grandchildren  to  follow  his  example — "  I  will 
not  have  you  begin  or  pledge  any  health,  for  it  is  be- 
come one  of  the  greatest  artifices  of  drinking,  and  occa- 
sions of  quarrelling  in  the  kingdom.     If  you  pledge  one 


416  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

health  you  oblige  yourself  to  pledge  another,  and  a 
third,  and  so  onwards;  and  if  you  pledge  as  many  as 
will  be  drunk,  you  must  be  debauched  and  drunk.  If 
they  will  needs  know  the  reason  of  your  refusal,  it  is  a 
fair  answer,  '  that  your  grandfather  that  brought  you  up, 
from  whom,  under  God,  you  have  the  estate  you  enjoy 
or  expect,  left  this  in  command  with  you,  that  you  should 
never  begin  or  pledge  a  health.' " 

Jeffrey's  protege,  John  Trevor,  liked  good  wine  himself, 
but  emulated  the  virtuous  Hale  in  the  pains  which  he 
took  to  place  the  treacherous  drink  beyond  the  reach  of 
others — whenever  they  showed  a  desire  to  drink  it  at  his 
expense.  After  his  expulsion  from  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, Sir  John  Trevor  was  sitting  alone  over  a  choice 
bottle  of  claret,  when  his  needy  kinsman,  Roderic  Lloyd, 
was  announced.  "  You  rascal,"  exclaimed  the  Master 
of  the  Rolls,  springing  to  his  feet,  and  attacking  his 
footman  with  furious  language,  "  you  have  brought  my 
cousin,  Roderic  Lloyd,  Esquire,  Prothonotary  of  North 
Wales,  Marshal  to  Baron  Price,  up  my  back  stairs.  You 
scoundrel,  hear  ye,  I  order  you  to  take  him  this  instant 
down  my  back  stairs,  and  bring  him  up  my  front  stairs." 
Sir  John  made  such  a  point  of  showing  his  visitor  this 
mark  of  respect,  that  the  young  barrister  was  forced  to 
descend  and  enter  the  room  by  the  state  staircase;  but 
he  saw  no  reason  to  think  himself  honored  by  his  cousin's 
punctilious  courtesy,  when  on  entering  the  room  a  second 
time  he  looked  in  vain  for  the  claret  bottle. 

On  another  occasion  Sir  John  Trevor's  official  resi- 
dence afforded  shelter  to  the  same  poor  relation  when  the 
latter  was  in  great  mental  trouble.  "  Roderic,"  saith 
the  chronicler,  "was  returning  rather  elevated  from  his 
club  one  night,  and  ran  against  the  pump  in  Chancery 
Lane.  Conceiving  somebody  had  struck  him,  he  drew 
and  made  a  lunge  at  the  pump.     The  sword  entered  the 


At  Home:  in  Court:  and  in  Society.  417 

spout,  and  the  pump,  being  crazy,  fell  down.  Boderic 
concluded  he  had  killed  his  man,  left  his  sword  in  the 
pump,  and  retreated  to  his  old  friend's  house  at  the 
Rolls.  There  he  was  concealed  by  the  servants  for  the 
night.  In  the  morning  his  Honor,  having  heard  the 
story,  came  himself  to  deliver  him  from  his  consternation 
and  confinement  in  the  coal-hole." 

Amongst  the  eighteenth  century  lawyers  there  was 
considerable  difference  of  taste  and  opinion  on  questions 
relating  to  the  use  and  abuse  of  wine.  Though  he  never, 
or  very  seldom,  exceeded  the  limits  of  sobriety,  Soniers 
enjoyed  a  bottle  in  congenial  society;  and  though  wine 
never  betrayed  him  into  reckless  hilarity,  it  gave  gentle- 
ness and  comity  to  his  habitually  severe  countenance  and 
solemn  deportment — if  reliance  may  be  placed  on  Swift's 
couplet — 

•  By  force  of  wine  even  Scarborough  is  brave, 
Hall  grows  more  pert,  and  Somers  not  so  grave." 

A  familiar  quotation  that  alludes  to  Murray's  early 
intercourse  with  the  wits  warrants  an  inference  that  in 
opening  manhood  he  preferred  champagne  to  every  other 
wine;  but  as  Lord  Mansfield  he  steadily  adhered  to 
claret,  though  fashion  had  taken  into  favor  the  fuller 
wine  stigmatized  as  poison  by  John  Home's  famous 
epigram — 

"  Bold  and  erect  tbe  Caledonian  stood; 
Old  was  his  mutton,  and  his  claret  good. 
'Let  him  drink  port,'  an  English  statesman  cried: 
He  drunk  the  poison  and  his  spirit  died." 

"Unlike  his  father,  who  never  sinned  against  moderation 
in  his  cups,  Charles  Yorke  was  a  deep  drinker  as  well  as 
a  gourmand.  Hardwicke's  successor,  Lord  Northington, 
was  the  first  of  a  line  of  port-wine-drinking  judges  that 
18* 


418  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

may  at  the  present  time  be  fairly  said  to  have  come  to 
an  end — although  a  few  reverend  fathers  of  the  law  yet 
remain,  who  drink  with  relish  the  Methuen  drink  when 
age  has  deprived  it  of  body  and  strength.  Until  Robert 
Henley  held  the  seals,  Chancellors  continued  to  hold 
after-dinner  sittings  in  the  Court  of  Chancery  on  certain 
days  of  the  week  throughout  term.  Hardwicke,  through- 
out his  long  official  career,  sat  on  the  evenings  of  Wed- 
nesdays and  Fridays  hearing  causes,  while  men  of  plea- 
sure were  fuddling  themselves  with  fruity  vintages.  Lord 
Northington,  however,  prevailed  on  George  TTL  to  let 
him  discontinue  these  evening  attendances  in  court.  "  But 
why,"  asked  the  monarch,  "  do  you  wish  for  a  change  ?" 
"  Sir,"  the  Chancellor  answered,  with  delightful  frank- 
ness, "  I  want  the  change  in  order  that  I  may  finish  my 
bottle  of  port  at  my  ease;  and  your  majesty,  in  your  pa- 
rental care  for  the  happiness  of  your  subjects,  will,  I  trust, 
think  this  a  sufficient  reason."  Of  course  the  king's 
laughter  ended  in  a  favorable  answer  to  the  petition  for 
reform,  and  from  that  time  the  Chancellor's  evening  sit- 
tings were  discontinued.  But  ere  he  died,  the  jovial 
Chancellor  paid  the  penalty  which  port  exacts  from  all 
her  fervent  worshippers,  and  he  suffered  the  acutest  pangs 
of  gout.  It  is  recorded  that  as  he  limped  from  the  wool- 
sack to  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Lords,  he  once  muttered 
to  a  young  peer,  who  watched  his  distress  with  evident 
sympathy — "  Ah,  my  young  friend,  if  I  had  known  that 
these  legs  would  one  day  carry  a  Chancellor,  I  would 
have  taken  better  care  of  them  when  I  was  at  your  age." 
Unto  this  had  come  the  handsome  legs  of  young  Coun- 
sellor Henley,  who,  in  his  dancing  days,  stepped  minuets 
to  the  enthusiastic  admiration  of  the  belles  of  Bath. 

Some  light  is  thrown  on  the  manners  of  lawyers  in  the 
eighteenth  century  by  an  order  made  by  the  authorities 
of  Barnard's  Inn.  who,  in  November,  1706,  named  two 


At  Home:  in  Court:  and  in  Societg.  419 

quarts  as  the  allowance  of  wine  to  be  given  to  each  mess 
of  four  men  by  two  gentlemen  on  going  through  the  cere- 
mony of  '  initiation.'  Of  course,  this  amount  of  wine 
was  an  '  extra '  allowance,  in  addition  to  the  ale  and 
sherry  assigned  to  members  by  the  regular  dietary  of  the 
house.  Even  Sheridan,  who  boasted  that  he  could  drink 
any  given  quantity  of  wine,  would  have  thought  twice 
before  he  drank  so  large  a  given  quantity,  in  addition  to 
a  liberal  allowance  of  stimulant.  Anyhow,  the  quantity 
was  fixed — a  fact  that  would  have  elicited  an  expression 
of  approval  from  Chief  Baron  Thompson,  who,  loving 
port  wine  wisely,  though  too  well,  expressed  at  the  same 
time  his  concurrence  with  the  words,  and  his  dissent 
from  the  opinion  of  a  barrister,  who  observed — "  I  hold, 
my  lord,  that  after  a  good  dinner  a  certain  quantity  of 
wine  does  no  harm."  With  a  smile,  the  Chief  Baron  re- 
joined— "  True,  sir  ;  it  is  the  uncertain  quantity  that  does 
the  mischief." 

The  most  temperate  of  the  eighteenth-century  Chan- 
cellors was  Lord  Camden,  who  required  no  more  generous 
beverage  than  sound  malt  liquor,  as  he  candidly  declared, 
in  a  letter  to  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  wherein  he  says — "  I 
am,  thank  God,  remarkably  well,  but  your  grace  must 
not  seduce  me  into  my  former  intemperance.  A  plain 
dish  and  a  draught  of  porter  (which  last  is  indispensable), 
are  the  very  extent  of  my  luxury."  For  porter,  Edward 
Thurlow,  in  his  student  days,  had  high  respect  and  keen 
relish  ;  but  in  his  mature  years,  as  well  as  still  older  age, 
full-bodied  port  was  his  favorite  drink,  and  under  its  in- 
fluence were  seen  to  the  best  advantage  those  colloquial 
powers  which  caused  Samuel  Johnson  to  exclaim — "  De- 
pend upon  it,  sir,  it  is  when  you  come  close  to  a  man  in 
conversation  that  you  discover  what  his  real  abilities  are; 
to  make  a  speech  in  a  public  assembly  is  a  knack.  Now, 
I  honor  Thurlow,  sir;  Thurlow  is  a  fine  fellow:  he  fairly 


420  A  Book  about  Laicyers. 

puts  his  mind  to  yours."  Of  Thurlow,  when  he  had 
mounted  the  woolsack,  Johnson  also  observed — "  I  would 
prepare  myself  for  no  man  in  England  but  Lord  Thur- 
low. "When  I  am  to  meet  him,  I  would  wish  to  know  a 
day  before."  From  <the  many  stories  told  of  Thurlow 
and  ebriosity,  one  may  be  here  taken  and  brought  under 
the  reader's  notice — not  because  it  has  wit  or  humor  to 
recommend  it,  but  because  it  presents  the  Chancellor  in 
company  with  another  port-loving  lawyer,  William  Pitt, 
from  whose  fame,  by-the-by,  Lord  Stanhope  has  recently 
removed  the  old  disfiguring  imputations  of  sottishness. 
"  Returning,"  says  Sir  Nathaniel  Wraxall,  a  poor  author- 
ity, but  piquant  gossip-monger,  "by  way  of  frolic,  very 
late  at  night,  on  horseback,  to  Wimbledon,  from  Addis- 
combe,  the  seat  of  Mr.  Jenkinson,  near  Croydon,  where 
the  party  had  dined,  Lord  Thurlow,  the  Chancellor, 
Pitt,  and  Dundas,  found  the  turnpike  gate,  situate  be- 
tween Tooting  and  Streatham,  thrown  open.  Being 
elevated  above  their  usual  prudence,  and  having  no  ser- 
vant near  them,  they  passed  through  the  gate  at  a  brisk 
pace,  without  stopping  to  pay  the  toH,  regardless  of  the 
remonstrances  and  threats  of  the  turnpike  man,  who 
running  after  them,  and  believing  them  to  belong  to 
some  highwaymen  who  had  recently  committed  some 
depredation  on  that  road,  discharged  the  contents  of 
his  blunderbuss  at  their  backs.  Happily  he  did  no  in- 
jury." 

Throughout  their  long  lives  the  brothers  Scott  were 
steady,  and,  according  to  the  rules  of  the  present  day,  in- 
ordinate drinkers  of  port  wine.  As  a  young  barrister, 
John  Scott  could  carry  more  port  with  decorum  than  any 
other  man  of  his  inn  ;  and  in  the  days  when  he  is  gener- 
ally supposed  to  have  lived  on  sprats  and  table-beer,  he 
seldom  passed  twenty-four  hours  without  a  bottle  of  his 
favorite  wine.    Prudence,  however,  made  him  careful  to 


At  Some:  in  Court:  and  in  Society.  421 

avoid  intoxication,  and  when  he  found  that  a  friendship 
often  betrayed  him  into  what  he  thought  excessive  drink- 
ing, he  withdrew  from  the  dangerous  connexion.  "I  see 
your  friend  Bowes  very  often,"  he  wrote  in  May,  1778,  a 
time  when  Mr.  Bowes  was  his  most  valuable  client;  "  but 
I  dare  not  dine  with  him  above  once  in  three  months,  as 
there  is  no  getting  away  before  midnight  ;  and,  indeed, 
one  is  sure  to  be  in  a  condition  in  which  no  man  would 
wish  to  be  in  the  streets  at  any  other  season."  Of  the 
quantities  imbibed  at  these  three-monthly  dinners,  an  es- 
timate may  be  formed  from  the  following  story.  Bringing 
from  Oxford  to  London  that  fine  sense  of  the  merits  of 
port  wine  which  characterized  the  thorough  Oxonion  of 
a  century  since,  William  Scott  made  it  for  some  years  a 
rule  to  dine  with  his  brother  John  on  the  first  day  of  term 
at  a  tavern  hard  by  the  Temple  ;  and  on  these  occasions 
the  brothers  used  to  make  away  with  bottle  after  bottle 
not  less  to  the  astonishment  than  the  approval  of  the 
waiters  who  served  them.  Before  the  decay  of  his  facul- 
ties, Lord  Stowell  was  recalling  these  terminal  dinners  to 
his  son-in-law,  Lord  Sidmouth,  when  the  latter  observed, 
"  You  drank  some  wine  together,  I  dare  say  ?"  Lord 
Stowell,  modestly,  "  Yes,  we  drank  some  wine."  Son-in- 
law,  inquisitively,  "  Two  bottles  ?"  Lord  Stowell,  quickly 
putting  away  the  imputation  of  such  abstemiousness, 
"  More  than  that."  Son-in-law,  smiling,  "  What,  three 
bottles?"  Lord  Stowell,  "More."  Son-in-law,  opening 
his  eyes  with  astonishment,  "By  Jove,  sir,  you  don't 
mean  to  say  that  you  took  four  bottles  ?"  Lord  Stowell, 
beginning  to  feel  ashamed  of  himself,  "  More ;  I  mean 
to  say  we  had  more.  Now  don't  ask  anymore  questions." 
Whilst  Lord  StOwell,  smarting  under  the  domestic 
misery  of  which  his  foolish  marc-iage  with  the  Dowager 
Marchioness  of  Sligo  was  fruitful,  sought  comfort  and 
forgetfulness  in  the  cellar  of  the  Middle  Temple,  Lord 


422  A  Book  about  Lawtjers. 

Eldon  drained  magnums  of  Newcastle  port  at  his  own 
table.  Populous  with  wealthy  merchants,  and  surrounded 
by  an  opulent  aristocracy,  Newcastle  had  used  the  advan- 
tages given  her  by  a  large  export  trade  with  Portugal  to 
draw  to  her  cellars  such  superb  port  wine  as  could  be 
found  in  no  other  town  in  the  United  Kingdom  ",  and  to 
the  last  the  Tory. Chancellor  used  to  get  his  port  from  the 
canny  capital  of  Northumbria.  Just  three  weeks  before 
his  death,  the  veteran  lawyer,  sitting  in  his  easy-chair  and 
recalling  his  early  triumphs,  preluded  an  account  of  the 
great  leading  case,  "  Akroyd  v.  Smithson,"  by  saying  to 
his  listener,  "  Come,  Farrer,  help  yourself  to  a  glass  of 
Newcastle  port,  and  help  me  to  a  little."  But  though  he 
asked  for  a  little,  the  old  earl,  according  to  his  wont, 
drank  much  before  he  was  raised  from  his  chair  and  led 
to  his  sleeping-room.  It  is  on  record,  and  is  moreover 
supported  by  unexceptionable  evidence,  that  in  his  ex- 
treme old  age,  whilst  he  was  completely  laid  upon  the 
shelf,  and  almost  down  to  the  day  of  his  death,  which 
occurred  in  his  eighty-seventh  year,  Lord  Eldon  never 
drank  less  than  three  pints  of  port  daily  with  or  after  his 
dinner. 

Of  eminent  lawyers  who  were  steady  port-wine  drink- 
ers, Baron  Piatt — the  amiable  and  popular  judge  who 
died  in  1862,  aged  seventy-two  years — may  be  regarded 
as  one  of  the  last.  Of  him  it  is  recorded  that  in  early 
manhood  he  was  so  completely  prostrated  by  severe  ill- 
ness that  beholders  judged  him  to  be  actually  dead. 
Standing  over  his  silent  body  shortly  before  the  arrival  of 
the  undertaker,  two  of  his  friends  concurred  in  giving 
utterance  to  the  sentiment :  "  Ah,  poor  dear  fellow,  we 
shall  never  drink  a  glass  of  wine  with  him  again  ;"  when, 
to  their  momentary  alarm  and  subsequent  delight,  the 
dead  man  interposed  with  a  faint  assumption  of  jocular- 
ity, "  But  you  will  though,  and  a  good  many  too,  I  hope." 


Law  and  Literature.  423 

When  the  undertaker  called  he  was  sent  away  a  genuinely 
sorrowful  man  ;  and  the  young  lawyer,  who  was  '  not 
dead  yet,'  lived  to  old  age  and  good  purpose. 


CHAPTER  XLVn. 

LAW   AND    LITERATURE, 


AT  the  present  time,  when  three  out  of  every  five 
journalists  attached  to  our  chief  London  news- 
papers are  Inns-of -Court  men;  when  many  of  our  able 
and  successful  advocates  are  known  to  ply  their  pens  in 
organs  of  periodical  literature  as  regularly  as  they  raise 
their  voices  in  courts  of  justice;  and  when  the  young 
Templar,  who  has  borne  away  the  first  honors  of  his 
university,  deems  himself  the  object  of  a  compliment  on 
receiving  an  invitation  to  contribute  to  the  columns  of  a 
leading  review  or  daily  journal — it  is  difficult  to  believe 
that  strong  men  are  still  amongst  us  who  can  remember 
the  days  when  it  was  the  fashion  of  the  bar  to  disdain 
law-students  who  were  suspected  of  '  writing  for  hire' 
and  barristers  who  *  reported  for  the  papers.'  Through- 
out the  opening  years  of  the  present  century,  and  even 
much  later,  it  was  almost  universally  held  on  the  circuits 
and  in  Westminster  Hall,  that  Inns-of-Court  men  lowered 
the  dignity  of  their  order  by  following  those  literary 
avocations  by  which  some  of  the  brightest  ornaments  of 
the  law  supported  themselves  at  the  outset  of  their  pro- 
fessional careers.  Notwithstanding  this  prejudice,  a  few 
wearers  of  the  long  robe,  daring  by  nature,  or  rendered 
bold  by  necessity,  persisted  in  '  maintaining  a  connexion 
with  the  press,  whilst  they  sought  briefs  on  the  circuit, 


424  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

or  waited  for  clients  in  their  chambers.  Such  men  as 
Sergeant  Spankie  and  Lord  Campbell,  as  Master  Stephen 
and  Mr.  Justice  Talfourd,  were  reporters  for  the  press 
whilst  they  kept  terms;  and  no  sooner  had  Henry 
Brougham's  eloquence  charmed  the  public,  than  it  was 
whispered  that  for  years  his  pen,  no  less  ready,  than  his 
tongue,  had  found  constant  employment  in  organs  of 
political  intelligence. 

But  though  such  men  were  known  to  exist,  they  were 
regarded  as  the  'black  sheep'  of  the  bar  by  a  great 
majority  of  their  profession.  It  is  not  improbable  that 
this  prejudice  against  gownsmen  on  the  press  was  pal- 
liated by  circumstances  that  no  longer  exist.  When 
political  writers  were  very  generally  regarded  as  dan- 
gerous members  of  society,  and  when  conductors  of 
respectable  newspapers  were  harassed  with  vexatious 
prosecutions  and  heavy  punishments  for  acts  of  trivial 
inadvertence,  or  for  purely  imaginary  offences,  the  average 
journalist  was  in  many  respects  inferior  to  the  average 
journalist  working  under  the  present  more  favorable 
circumstances.  Men  of  culture,  honest  purpose,  and 
fine  feeling  were  slow  to  enrol  themselves  members  of  a 
despised  and  proscribed  fraternity;  and  in  the  dearth  of 
educated  gentlemen  ready  to  accept  literary  employment, 
the  task  of  writing  for  the  public  papers  too  frequently 
devolved  upon  very  unscrupulous  persons,  who  rendered 
their  calling  as  odious  as  themselves.  A  shackled  and 
persecuted  press  is  always  a  licentious  and  venal  press; 
and  before  legislation  endowed  English  journalism  with 
a  certain  measure  of  freedom  and  security,  it  was  seldom 
manly  and  was  often  corrupt.  It  is  therefore  probable 
that  our  grandfathers  had  some  show  of  reason  for  their 
dislike  of  contributors  to  anonymous  literature.  At  the 
bar  men  of  unquestionable  amiability  and  enlightenment 
were  often  the  loudest  to  express  this  aversion  for  their 


Tempora  Mutantur.  425 

scribbling  brethren.  It  was  said  that  the  scribblers 
were  seldom  gentlemen  in  temper;  and  that  they  never 
hesitated  to  puff  themselves  in  their  papers  These  con- 
siderations so  far  influenced  Mr.  Justice  Lawrence  that, 
though  he  was  a  model  of  judicial  suavity  to  all  other 
members  of  the  bar,  he  could  never  bring  himself  to  be 
barely  civil  to  advocates  known  to  be  '  upon  the  press." 
At  Lincoln's  Inn  this  strong  feeling  against  journalists 
found  vent  in  a  resolution,  framed  in  reference  to  a 
particular  person,  which  would  have  shut  out  journalists 
from  the  Society.  It  had  long  been  understood  that  no 
student  could  be  called  to  the  bar  whilst  he  was  acting 
as  a  reporter  in  the  gallery  of  either  house;  but  the  new 
decision  of  the  benchers  would  have  destroyed  the  ancient 
connexion  of  the  legal  profession  and  literary  calling. 
Strange  to  say  this  illiberal  measure  was  the  work  of 
two  benchers  who,  notwithstanding  their  patrician  descent 
and  associations,  were  vehement  asserters  of  Liberal  prin- 
ciples. Mr.  Clifford — '  O.  P.'  Clifford — was  its  proposer 
and  Erskine  was  its  seconder.  Fortunately  the  person 
who  was  the  immediate  object  of  its  provisions  petitioned 
the  House  of  Commons  upon  the  subject,  and  the  con- 
sequent debate  in  the  Lower  House  decided  the  benchers 
to  withdraw  from  their  false  position;  and  since  their 
silent  retreat  no  attempt  has  been  .made  by  any  of  the 
four  honorable  societies  to  affix  an  undeserved  stigma 
on  the  followers  of  a  serviceable  art.  Upon  the  whole 
the  literary  calling  gained  much  from  the  discreditable 
action  of  Lincoln's  Inn;  for  the  speech  in  which  Sheridan 
covered  with  derision  this  attempt  to  brand  parliamentary 
reporters  as  unfit  to  associate  with  members  of  the  bar, 
and  the  address  in  which  Mr.  Stephen,  with  manly  refer- 
ence to  his  own  early  experiences,  warmly  censured  the 
conduct  of  the  society  of  which  he  was  himself  a  mem- 
ber, caused  many  persons  to  form  a  new  and  juster  esti- 


426  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

mate  of  the  working  members  of  the  London  press. 
Having  alluded  to  Dr.  Johnson  and  Edmund  Burke, 
who  had  both  acted  as  parliamentary  reporters,  Sheridan 
stated  that  no  less  than  twenty-three  graduates  of  uni- 
versities were  then  engaged  as  reporters  of  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  house. 

The  close  connexion  which  for  centuries  has  existed 
between  men  of  law  and  men  of  letters  is  illustrated  on 
the  one  hand  by  a  long  succession  of  eminent  lawyers  who 
have  added  to  the  lustre  of  professional  honors  the  no 
less  bright  distinctions  of  literary  achievements  or  friend- 
ships, and  on  the  other  hand  by  the  long  line  of  able 
writers  who  either  enrolled  themselves  amongst  the  stu- 
dents of  the  law,  or  resided  in  the  Inns  of  Court,  or 
cherished  with  assiduous  care  the  friendly  regard  of 
famous  judges.  Indeed,  since  the  days  of  Chancellor  de 
Bury,  who  wrote  the  '  Philobiblon,'  there  have  been  few 
Chancellors  to  whom  literature  is  not  in  some  way  in- 
debted ;  and  the  few  Keepers  of  the  Seal  who  neither 
cared  for  letters  nor  cultivated  the  society  of  students, 
are  amongst  the  judges  whose  names  most  Englishmen 
would  gladly  erase  from  the  history  of  their  country. 
Jeffreys  and  Macclesfield  represent  the  unlettered  Chan- 
cellors ;  More  and  Bacon  the  lettered.  Fortescue's  '  De 
Laudibus'  is  a  book  for  every  reader.  To  Chancellor 
Warham,  Erasmus — a  scholar  not  given  to  distribute 
praise  carelessly — dedicated  his  '  St.  Jerom,'  with  cordial 
eulogy.  Wolsey  was  a  patron  of  letters.  More  may  be 
said  to  have  revived,  if  he  did  not  create,  the  literary 
taste  of  his  contemporaries,  and  to  have  transplanted 
the  novel  to  English  soil.  Equally  diligent  as  a  writer 
and  a  collector  of  books,  Gardyner  spent  his  happiest 
moments  at  his  desk,  or  over  the  folios  of  the  magnificent 
library  which  was  destroyed  by  Wyat's  insurgents. 
Christopher  Hat  ton  was  a  dramatic  author.    To  one 


Tempora  Mutantur.  ¥L1 

person  who  can  describe  with  any  approach  to  accuracy- 
Edward  Hyde's  conduct  in  the  Court  of  Chancery,  there 
are  twenty  who  have  studied  Clarendon's  'Rebellion.' 
At  the  present  date  Hale's  books  are  better  known  than 
his  judgments,  though  his  conduct  towards  the  witches 
of  Bury  St.  Edmunds  conferred  an  unenviable  fame  on 
his  judicial  career.  By  timely  assistance  rendered  to 
Burnet,  Lord  Nottingham  did  something  to  atone  for  his 
brutality  towards  Milton,  whom,  at  an  earlier  period  of 
his  career,  he  had  declared  worthy  of  a  felon's  death,  for 
having  been  Cromwell's  Latin  secretary.  Lord  Keeper 
North  wrote  upon  '  Music ;'  and  to  his  brother  Roger 
literature  is  indebted  for  the  best  biographies  composed 
by  any  writer  of  his  period.  In  his  boyhood  Somers 
was  a  poet ;  in  his  -maturer  years  the  friend  of  poets. 
The  friend  of  Prior  and  Gay,  Arbuthnot  and  Pope,  Lord 
Chancellor  Harcourt,  wrote  verses  of  more  than  ordinary 
merit,  and  alike  in  periods  of  official  triumph  and  in  times 
of  retirement  valued  the  friendship  of  men  of  wit  above 
the  many  successes  of  his  public  career.  Lord  Chancellor 
King,  author  of  '  Constitution  and  Discipline  of  the  Primi- 
tive Church,'  was  John  Locke's  dutiful  nephew  and  favor- 
ite companion.  King's  immediate  successor  was  extolled 
by  Pope  in  the  lines, 

0  teach  as,  Talbot !  thou'rt  unspoil'd  by  wealth, 
That  secret  rare,  between  the  extremes  to  move, 
Of  mad  good-nature  and  of  mean  self-love. 
Who  is  it  copies  Talbot's  better  part, 
To  ease  th'  oppress'd,  and  raise  the  sinking  heart  ? 

But  Talbot's  fairest  eulogy  was  penned  by  his  son's  tutor, 
Alexander  Thomson — a  poet  who  had  no  reason  to  feel 
gratitude  to  Talbot's  official  successor.  Ere  he  thoroughly 
resolved  to  devote  himself  to  law,  the  cold  and  formal 
Hardwicke  had  cherished  a  feeble  ambition  for  literary 
distinction  ;  and  under  its  influence  he  wrote  a  paper 


428  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

that  appeared  in  the  Spectator.  Blackstone's  entrance  at 
the  Temple  occasioned  his  metrical  'Farewell'  to  his 
muse.  In  his  undergraduate  days  at  Cambridge  Lord 
Chancellor  Charles  Torke  was  a  chief  contributor  to  the 
'  Athenian  Letters, '  and  it  would  have  been  well  for  him 
had  he  in  after-life  given  to  letters  a  portion  of  the  time 
which  he  sacrificed  to  ambition.  Thurlow's  churlishness 
and  overbearing  temper  are  at  this  date  trifling  matters 
in  comparison  with  his  friendship  for  Cowper  and  Samuel 
Johnson,  and  his  kindly  aid  to  George  Crabbe.  Even 
more  than  for  the  wisdom  of  his  judgments  Mansfield  is 
remembered  for  his  intimacy  with  'the  wits,'  and  his 
close  friendship  with  that  chief  of  them  all,  who  exclaimed, 
"How  sweet  an  Ovid,  Murray,  was  our  boast,"  and  in 
honor  of  that  "  Sweet  Ovid "  penned  the  lines, 

"  Graced  as  thou  art,  with  all  the  power  of  words, 
So  known,  so  honored  in  the  House  of  Lords  " — 

verses  deliciously  ridiculed  by  the  parodist  who  wrote, 

"  Persuasion  tips  his  tongue  whene'er  he  talks  : 
And  he  has  chambers  in  the  King's  Bench  walks." 

As  an  atonement  for  many  defects,  Alexander  Wedder- 
burn  had  one  virtue — an  honest  respect  for  letters  that 
made  him  in  opening  manhood  seek  the  friendship  of 
Hume,  at  a  later  date  solicit  a  pension  for  Dr.  Johnson, 
and  after  his  elevation  to  the  woolsack  overwhelm  Gibbon 
with  hospitable  civilities.  Eldon  was  an  Oxford  Essayist 
in  his  young,  the  compiler  of  '  The  Anecdote  Book '  in 
his  old  days  ;  and  though  he  cannot  be  commended  for 
literary  tastes,  or  sympathy  with  men  of  letters,  he  was 
one  of  the  many  great  lawyers  who  found  pleasure  in  the 
conversation  of  Samuel  Johnson.  Unlike  his  brother, 
Lord  Stowell  clung  fast  to  his  literary  friendships,  as 
1  Dr.  Scott  of  the  Commons'  priding  himself  more  on  his 
membership  in  the  Literary  Club  than  on  his  standing 


T&mpora  Mutantur.  429 

in  the  Prerogative  Court;  and  as  Lord  Stowell  evincing 
cordial  respect  for  the  successors  of  Reynolds  and  Malone, 
even  when  love  of  money  had  taken  firm  hold  of  his  en- 
feebled mind.  Archdeacon  Paley's  London  residence  was 
in  Edward  Law's  house  in  Bloomsbury  Square.  In 
Erskine  literary  ambition  was  so  strong  that,  not  content 
with  the  fame  brought  to  him  by  excellent  vers  de  societe, 
he  took  pen  in  hand  when  he  resigned  the  seals,  and — 
more  to  the  delight  of  his  enemies  than  the  satisfaction 
of  his  friends — wrote  a  novel,  which  neither  became,  nor 
deserved  to  be,  permanently  successful.  With  similar 
zeal  and  greater  ability  the  literary  reputation  of  the  bar 
has  been  maintained  by  Lord  Denman,  who  was  an 
industrious  litterateur  whilst  he  was  working  his  way  up 
at  the  bar;  by  Sir  John  Taylor  Coleridge,  whose  services 
to  the  Quarterly  Review  are  an  affair  of  literary  history ; 
by  Sir  Thomas  Noon  Talfourd,  who,  having  reported  in 
the  gallery,  lived  to  take  part  in. the  debates  of  the  House 
of  Commons,  and  who,  from  the  date  of  his  first  engage- 
ment on  the  Times  till  the  sad  morning  when  "God's 
finger  touched  him,"  while  he  sat  upon  the  bench,  never 
altogether  relinquished  those  literary  pursuits,  in  which 
he  earned  well-merited  honor ;  by  Lord  Macaulay,  whose 
connexion  with  the  legal  profession  is  almost  lost  sight  of 
in  the  brilliance  of  his  literary  renown  ;  by  Lord  Camp- 
bell, who  dreamt  of  living  to  wear  an  SS  collar  in  West- 
minster Hall  whilst  he  was  merely  John  Campbell  the 
reporter ;  by  Lord  Brougham,  who,  having  instructed 
our  grandfathers  with  his  pen,  still  remains  upon  the 
stage,  giving  their  grandsons  wise  lessons  with  his  tongue; 
and  by  Lord  Romilly,  whose  services  to  English  litera- 
ture have  won  for  him  the  gratitude  of  scholars. 

Of  each  generation  of  writers  between  the  accession  of 
Elizabeth  and  the  present  time,  several  of  the  most  con 
spicuous  names  are  either  found  on  the  rolls  of  the  inns, 


430  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

or  are  closely  associated  in  the  minds  of  students  with 
the  life  of  the  law-colleges.  Shakspeare's  plays  abound 
with  testimony  that  he  was  no  stranger  in  the  legal  inns, 
and  the  rich  vein  of  legal  lore  and  diction  that  runs 
through  his  writings  has  induced  more  judicious  critics 
than  Lord  Campbell  to  conjecture  that  he  may  at  some 
early  time  of  his  career  have  directed  his  mind  to  the 
study,  if  not  the  practice,  of  the  law.  Amongst  Eliza- 
bethan writers  who  belonged  to  inns  may  be  mentioned 
— George  Ferrars,  William  Lambarde,  Sir  Henry  Spel- 
man,  and  that  luckless  pamphleteer  John  Stubbs,  all  of 
whom  were  members  of  Lincoln's  Inn;  Thomas  Sack- 
ville,  Francis  Beaumont  the  Younger,  and  John  Ferae, 
of  the  Inner  Temple  ;  Walter  Raleigh,  of  the  Mid- 
dle Temple  ;  Francis  Bacon,  Philip  Sidney,  George  Gas- 
coyne,  and  Francis  Davison,  of  Gray's  Inn.  Sir  John 
Denham,  the  poet,  became  a  Lincoln's-Inn  student  in 
1634;  and  Francis  Quarles  was  a  member  of  the  same 
learned  society.  John  Selden  entered  the  Inner  Temple 
in  the  second  year  of  James  I.,  where  in  due  course  he 
numbered,  amongst  his  literary  contemporaries, — William 
Browne,  Croke,  Oulde,  Thomas  Gardiner,  Dynne,  Edward 
Hey  wood,  John  Morgan,  Augustus  Csesar,  Thomas  Hey- 
gate,  Thomas  May,  dramatist  and  translator  of  Lucan's 
1  Pharsalia,'  William  Rough  and  Rymer  were  members 
of  Gray's  Inn.  Sir  John  Davis  and  Sir  Simonds  D'Ewes 
belonged  to  the  Middle  Temple.  Massinger's  dearest 
friends  lived  in  the  Inner  Temple,  of  which  society  George 
Keate,  the  dramatist,  and  Butler's  staunch  supporter 
William  Longueville,  were  members.  Milton  passed  the 
most  jocund  hours  of  his  life  in  Gray's  Inn,  in  which 
college  Cleveland  and  the  author  of  *  Hudibras'  held  the 
meetings  of  their  club.  Wycherley  and  Congreve,  Aubrey 
and  Narcissus  Luttrell  were  Inns-of-Court  men.  In  later 
periods  we  find  Thomas  Edwards,  the  critic;  Murphy,  the 


Tempora  Mutantur.  431 

dramatic  writer  ;  James  Mackintosh,  Francis  Hargrave, 
Bentham,  Curran,  Canning,  at  Lincoln's  Inn.  The  poet 
Cowper  was  a  barrister  of  the  Temple.  Amongst  other 
Templars  of  the  eighteenth  century,  with  whose  names 
the  literature  of  their  time  is  inpeparably  associated, 
were  Henry  Fielding,  Henry  Brooke,  Oliver  Goldsmith, 
and  Edmund  Burke.  Samuel  Johnson  resided  both  in 
Gray's  Inn  and  the  Temple,  and  his  friend  Boswell  was 
an  advocate  of  respectable  ability  as  well  as  the  best  bio- 
grapher on  the  roll  of  English  writers. 

The  foregoing  are  but  a  few  taken  from  hundreds  of 
names  that  illustrate  the  close  union  of  Law  and  Litera- 
ture in  past  times.  To  lengthen  the  list  would  but  weary 
the  reader ;  and  no'  pains  would  make  a  perfect  muster 
roll  of  all  the  literary  lawyers  and  legal  litterateurs  who 
either  are  still  upon  the  stage,  or  have  only  lately  passed 
away.  In  their  youth  four  well-known  living  novelists — 
Mr.  William  Harrison  Ainsworth,  Mr.  Shirley  Brooks,  Mr. 
Charles  Dickens,  and  Mr.  Benjamin  Disraeli — passed 
some  time  in  solicitors'  offices.  Mr.  John  Oxenford  was 
articled  to  an  attorney.  Mr.  Theodore  Martin  resembles 
the  authors  of  '  The  Rejected  Addresses'  in  being  a  suc- 
cessful practitioner  in  the  inferior  branch  of  the  law. 
Mr.  Charles  Henry  Cooper  was  a  successful  solicitor. 
On  turning  over  the  leaves  to  that  useful  book,  '  Men  of 
the  Time,'  the  reader  finds  mention  made  of  the  following 
men  of  letters  and  law — Sir  Archibald  Alison,  Mr.  Thomas 
Chisholm  Anstey,  Mr.  William  Edmonstone  Aytoun,  Mr. 
Philip  James  Bailey,  Mr.  J.  N.  Ball,  Mr.  Sergeant  Peter 
Burke,  Sir  J.  B.  Burke,  Mr.  John  Hill  Burton,  Mr.  Hans 
Busk,  Mr.  Isaac  Butt,  Mr.  George  Wingrove  Cooke,  Sir 
E.  S.  Creasy,  Dr.  Dasent,  Mr.  John  Thaddeus  Delane, 
Mr.  W.  Hepworth  Dixon,  Mr.  Commissioner  Fonblanque, 
Mr.  William  Forsyth,  Q.C.,  Mr.  Edward  Foss,  Mr.  William 
Carew  Hazlitt,  Mr.  Thomas  Hughes,  Mr.  Leone  Levi, 


432  A  Book  about  Lawyers. 

Mr.  Lawrence  Oliphant,  Mr.  Charles  Reade,  Mr.  W. 
Stigant,  Mr.  Tom  Taylor,  Mr.  McCullagh  Torrens,  Mr. 
M.  F.  Tupper,  Dr.  Travers,  Mr.  Samuel  Warren,  and  Mr. 
Charles  Weld.  Some  of  the  gentlemen  in  this  list  are 
not  merely  nominal  barristers,  but  are  practitioners  with 
an  abundance  of  business.  Amongst  those  to  whom  the 
editor  of  'Men  of  the  Time'  draws  attention  as  'Lawyers,' 
and  who  either  are  still  rendering  or  have  rendered  good 
service  to  literature,  occur  the  names  of  Sir  William 
A'Beckett,  Mr.  W.  Adams,  Dr.  Anster,  Sir  Joseph  Ar- 
nould,  Sir  George  Bowyer,  Sir  John  Coleridge,  Mr.  E. 
W.  Cox,  Mr.  Wilson  Gray,  Mr.  Justice  Haliburton,  Mr. 
Thomas  Lewin,  Mr.  Thomas  E.  May,  Mr.  J.  G.  Philli- 
more,  Mr.  James  Fitz  James  Stephen,  Mr.  Vernon  Har- 
court,  Mr.  James  Whiteside.  Some  of  the  distinguished 
men  mentioned  in  this  survey  have  already  passed  to 
another  world  since  the  publication  of  the  last  edition  of 
1  Men  of  the  Time  ;'  but  their  recorded  connexion  with 
literature  as  well  as  law  no  less  serves  to  illustrate  an 
important  feature  of  our  social  life.  It  is  almost  needless 
to  remark  that  the  names  of  many  of  our  ablest  anony- 
mous writers  do  not  appear  in  '  Men  of  the  Time.' 


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